#but reading more comics of this era its like .. ok so that's the only place where dc pretends its for rep
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Thinking about the representation of characters with chronic pain and... part of why I don't believe that any writer besides the batgirls writers was ACTUALLY trying to represent invisible disabilities with babs is because being an invisibly disabled person with chronic pain does not mean that you do everything an able bodied person does, but with one line that things hurt or you have to be careful.
Like now I use a wheelchair, but I used to do karate when I was still getting fibro. There was a bit where we all had to run for conditioning, and I had to sit out . Not "oh no this will feel in my knees". If I ran I would be able to do nothing else bc how much pain there would be. I still could do kata and stuff and sparring (probably unwisely) with a bunch of braces on every joint (ankles, knees, wrists, elbows), because that was low impact and hurt less. And I was completely wiped out after practices and lessons.
But my point is - being an active person with chronic pain does not mean looking like an able bodied person. Obviously it changes based on severity, and each person's individual experience, but I'm like... really babs has chronic pain and potential risk of reinjury and she's keeping up with the other batfam members on the rooftops in fear state? She's frantically lifting rubble and not immediately collapsing the instant she hears the people she was trying to rescue are safe? She pretty much just does everything an able bodied person does, but since the author said she had a back brace were supposed to pretend its reprentation and not CYA for ableism?
Like. Should note - I don't want babs to be a part time wheelchair user with chronic pain. I'm fine not being represented in this way, because she originally had another disability that was erased. But it's baffling to me when people act like dc actually intended her to be representation for people with invisible disabilities. I mention batgirls being an exveption bc that was what inspired this post - I was so surprised to see babs mention not getting up because her back hurt that I was like "wait literally no other writer of this era has done that amd acted like her disability might affect what she does'
#like inb4 i still dont like the Batgirls thing#but reading more comics of this era its like .. ok so that's the only place where dc pretends its for rep#and thats probably on the vwriters not the company#dc comics#barbara gordon#disabled characters#chronic pain
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Why read all this? Because I have the video game and I always regarded its style but I always resented its "play"style. It seems like you finally get to do something aannndd another chase mission- but this time with barriers! Plus the covers are cool and I grew addicted to reading it. So Peter's not young young but it sure seems like it to me, almost like a 12 year old batty tween, maybe because he was voiced by Phineas and I just read it that way most of the time but they point it out. Mary Jane is his cool nerd friend, so it's not as linear as a lot of other Spider-Man media, she goes to school with him and shows the relationship she has learning his identity early on and not just becoming someone he can confide in but always being that person from the get-go, this is also where she becomes a reporter and a real childhood friend taking the place of Gwen.
Wait- Gwen's in this?! Spectacular Spider-Man is one of those shows I hold nearest and dearest in terms of Spider-Man quality, it kept Gwen the way she is and allows Peter to be his nerdy self while eventually introducing Mary Jane as a late year student, not to mention the design being deliciously derivative of its name. But with Mary Jane acting out Gwen's role, Gwen comes in later, she doesn't take Mary's role either, she's a freak. In a way, when Peter gets his powers, he stops being the freak so that's what Gwen's here to replace. It certainly takes some liberties with that as well, having her carry a knife in school and act out because she's the police chief's daughter and then Peter acting open but bratty, it's more trying to fulfill what a kid of this era would do and feel rather than follow the guidelines of the original runs so there were some times when I would think "That would never happen" but it also would at the same time.
Gwen also takes a more sister role as time goes on with her family complications, this unfortunately leads to a falling out with Mary Jane as well as addresses a problem with her but I'll leave the relationship stuff alone. I was disappointed with their treatment of Gwen though, it just seemed like beyond what I described, they didn't know what to do with her and made more room for Mary Jane once her fight was over.
I'm not sure I can accept what Ultimate did to Green Goblin though because from here, it's only been picked up as the "modern design" I miss his glider and mean lean conniving green face with purple clothes complete with elf hat and pumpkin bombs. He's treated more as the Lizard without motivation, instead of replacing his arm...he's just doing it, idk, money I guess.
And now he can use fire. Ok, a bit more monster-y than previous iterations, and that's with most of the cast too. Oc having his arms literally fused to his skin, he wears shades because they're blinders from the light that's now sensitive to his eyes as well as to cover the damage the accident did to him.
You don't reach the events of the game until the 30s which actually didn't take a whole lot from the comics, the game just kind of wanted to expand the comic's lore which it successfully seemed to do but then it sort of got retconned in the comic...is it coherent or not?
Now Venom in itself, is one of those differences I was talking about. Eddie is like- not sure how to describe that- a Kyle looking nerd. We dig into what Peter's parents were researching (with Eddie's) which happened to be a way to create the symbiote rather than have it be an alien. You see, Venom heals wounds as we know, so this was their cure for cancer but it was shut down because apparently Reed Richards saw its potential as a weapon. And yes, I said Reed, while we don't see superheroes all that often, they make guest appearances and are referenced plenty of times to make that world more fleshed out, this is the "Ultimate" line after all, a lot of these characters already have their own comics in this universe. I don't normally read a whole line in Marvel because of how long winded they can be. With that said, it can be read as a singular line, no "visit Amazing #421 to find out more" or anything so it's easier to follow. There are some instances where it'll show something that didnt happen in the mainline though like a random flashback of Blade or Lizard or Daredevil for starters but its not hard to pick up on what happened there. It's just good to see them acknowledge the mutant crisis second hand, like hey, this is happening in the world, some people are for it, some people are against it.
There're some really good scenes that I think I'll take with me though like one where he's just Peter and instead of taking every punch without complaint, he takes a verbal beating from all ends, even Mary starts arguing with everyone because of it. Just the thought of all this chaos around him that even his friends aren't immune is really a picture to paint. That's the thing though, he does flip out by the end but this comic lets him do that. He has temper tantrums and makes mistakes that I never would've written in because they're annoying and make you ask "why are you doing that?" That's not one of those moments, he's well within his right that time but it's a case by case basis, it's almost this comic's quirk, that yeah he does the fight thing and has responsibility in the end but there's a journey to get there, he explores the instinctive advantages first before he learns it, it's not just Uncle Ben dies and suddenly he's the 'ultimate' right minded individual.
It shows parts where he butts heads with people though, like a mutant that the X-Men want to use for their gain to show mankind what they're doing to them but Peter sees it as "he's not a pawn in your game, he's a person." It becomes sort of liberating to see him finally on top and fight for the underdog of whatever fight even if they're technically on the same side, it just goes to show that he's a different superhero and is how I've always felt.
There's even a part where they're filming the Spider-Man movie. Yeah, I'm not exaggerating, Tobey Maguire, Sam Raimi, the whole shabang. Firestar appears with Iceman to make the Amazing Friends but it's Liza Allen? Ok. And her dad is…Blob?? What? We get her disinclined nature towards mutants and that's supposedly why but they never mention Blob until after, which until her mother revealed it, she believed was her uncle so why wouldn't she mention it?
(that's an actual panel) Reed turns piss to water and that…well, I don't know if he's trying to start a recycling campaign or sell it-
And it uh-
It- remember the clone saga and how poorly it was received? Well, for some reason they felt a need to keep trying to redo it and they do it here but I'm not sure how to feel about it. Amazing Spider-Man 3 had rumors that it was going to do some really weird things that I figured out actually came from this book but who's idea was it to do that AND make it the 100 issue spectacular, it's crude.
I'm about to spoil it now but you shouldn't care.
The Gwen being Carnage thing is actually kind of cool, I always looked at this series as half Spider-Man half Venom even though it didn't end up being that way when I read it, just the game. So it's sort of an anomaly because they also dig deeper into Peter's parents as I was saying earlier and I was alright with the whole thing previously but it got way too involved because his dad ended up being alive aaaannnndddd he's a clone too. Too many people are too caught up in trying to get his Spider powers then some of those villains are literally Peter. I thought Superior Spider-Man started all that with Oc making a Peter body to host but no, we have all kinds here, just not Oc. But Oc's here because he made the clones.
But it's not just that because one of the clones captures Mary Jane and wants to make her like Captain America, a supersoldier so that she can stay safe. She doesn't adhere to it and becomes a red furry monster. Now the Cap stuff is actually a plotline in the 90s animated series and I was alright with it there because it makes sense if they make the original success story into a blueprint for all these failed attempts, I think that's even what they did with Hulk in the MCU but when you're already doing that with Spider-Man in this series, it just seems like "make everyone who's not super, super." by whomever they feel has the coolest powers at the time.
But there's just so much crap piled on top with everything else here. It gets nuttier, Jessica Drew is one of the clones, completely undermining her character. That's a good representation for that arc, it undermines all the characters. May for example, knew that Peter's dad was 'alive', but just decided not to tell him and when she realizes Gwen is alive, Peter has no choice but to reveal he's Spider-Man, no more lies. Her response is to kick him out, wants nothing to do with him and never wants to see him again. I didn't like this Aunt May but I understood her concept because it aligns with everything else, how do you expect an average person to act? The thing is, Aunt May isn't really an average person in my book, she's more than that, she's Peter's reason for so much in his life, probably even more than his Uncle and that's saying something. Look at all of his greatest moments, sure Mary Jane was there but the trapped under the rubble?
That was to get a cure for Aunt May. Spider-Man PS4, sure NY is at stake because of the virus but he goes ape on Oc because his aunt specifically is in danger. Spider-Man 2, who told him what Spider-Man meant despite becoming victim to his villains. I could go on but even beyond that! She's more because of what she represents, she's like the perfect parent in some books, would Peter be the same he is if he was raised by anyone different? She's the moral compass and without that- ok. Hoomph! Breathe.
It's just all so condensed because that's right when Peter finds out his dad is alive, just walking through the door. Nothing has room to settle or stomach, it's a crap shoot. Now let's finish this.
Around 110, the artist changes and one of the other Ultimate series artists comes in, in a way, it's better but it's less stylized so idk, that was part of why I started it but it wasn't as good as I was hoping after seeing it so it's a change of pace.
Issue 133 is where the issues stop because, well, that's the end technically, the Ultimate universe was ending and it was an attempt to throw that contained thing out the window as it was already doing by this point and just morph it. It had a cool relationship with Hulk and Peter though and the cool but weird thing about 133 is that it has no dialogue, it's just art. So you could argue that it's silent without Spider-Man around but, idk. I didn't "like" the ending but I was done...
Wait, that's not it? Ultimate Fallout, Death of Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man...what is this? Well that's where Miles Morales comes in.
1–53 Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1) #1–53
54–60 Ultimate Six #1-7
61–140 Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1) #54–133
141–142 Ultimatum Spider-Man: Requiem (vol. 1) #1–2
143–157 Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (vol. 1) #1–15
158–168 Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1) #150–160
So there is an order...but then what's this?
It's called ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN? But I just read that. What? A volume 2? Wait and this came out BEFORE 133?
I thought Peter died and Miles took over? Yeah I only fini- no, not ONLY, I read 133 issues, that's no understatement, but you mean to tell me that that wasn't enough, that there's more just because and it seems totally different, Peter having a relationship with Gwen after...he came back somehow? What did I miss and I don't even know where I missed it at because it was in another comic.
My head hurts. Get me away from here. I'm glad it's over. It wasn't fun. I ruined it for myself. This is why I don't read Marvel comics. If you're a comic nerd, I NEVER want to hear you complain about Kingdom Hearts being complicated or on too many systems ever again, people rag so hard on the wrong things.
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hey jo! just curious cause im sick rn and i need some kind of .. tender entertainment HH and i thing ur Love (capitalized) for star wars is super endearing and and 🥺 i want a bit of that - so what is it about it? i mean.. the only lore i know is from the movies and the mando series, which isn't much with how big it seems to be judging by fan content. so idk but pls Do go off and talk about it just pitch sell it to me let me in let me iiiinnn
hey laura !!! i hope you feel better soon & thank you so much !!!!! ❤️❤️❤️ i will happily do my best to fill you in 💞 this is probably going to get very very long btw
ok, so the basic premise of the original trilogy (episode vi: a new hope, episode v: the empire strikes back, episode vi: return of the jedi) is the galaxy is under the rule of the evil galactic empire and its only opposition is a group of freedom fighters called the rebel alliance. a farm boy, luke skywalker, who is revealed to be a jedi, a person capable of using the force and wielding a lightsaber, becomes a jedi knight in his quest to aid the rebellion in defeating the empire once in for all. as the series progresses it's revealed that luke's father is actually the emperor's apprentice, formerly known as anakin skywalker, a fallen jedi and sith. by the end of the trilogy, luke is a fully fledged jedi knight and fights his father, and darth vader redeems himself by killing the emperor after watching the emperor try to kill his son. luke tries to save him but darth vader dies of his wounds. there's a whole bunch of other things that happen & way more characters but those are the very bare bones of the ot.
the prequel trilogy started in the 90's and ended in the 00s (episode i: the phantom menace, episode ii: attack of the clones, episode iii: revenge of the sith) and centers around luke's father, anakin, and how he went from being a jedi knight to a sith lord. it expands the universe further and also shows what the galaxy was like prior to the events of ANH. again, there's a lot more to it than that, which includes the jedi at their height, anakin's secret wife padme amidala, and way way more, but those are the bare bones.
there is a ton of media outside the main 6 films. (i'm not counting the sequel trilogy, episodes vii-ix. i don't like what they did, they sucked, and i haven't see ep ix and i will probably never. they had potential and they ruined it. so i will not be acknowledging or talking about those aside from the fact that finn deserved his own trilogy and jedi journey <3) there are shows, cartoons, novels, comics, video games. not to mention the masses of fanmade content. ever since disney acquired the rights to star wars, most of that media was relegated to "legends" (most of which is referred to as the EU, or extended universe), which means that they're still acknowledged as star wars stories but considered "old canon.
i know that's a ton of media and that's a lot of content and lore to sift through and it might seem overwhelming but like... i think that's one of the appeals for me, personally. there's so much content, so much to explore, so much more than just space wizards and stuff. there's so many stories, so many people, so many different worlds to read about and explore that like... the possibilities are essentially limitless. there's no "one area" that everyone sticks to in star wars lore, aside from general knowledge of the main movies (episodes i-ix). some people like the old republic era, which takes place thousands of years before the events of the ot. some people really love the prequels, which take place 20-30 yeras prior to the events of the ot. there are people who really like the civil war era, and people who like after. and there are people who love all of them or none of them or only stick to niche things like a certain planet or group etc etc. there's so much to choose from to love or hate or interact with. especially because there's so many aspects to every piece of media that can be talked about and explored. there's always something else to find. there's humans, jedi, sith, aliens, droids, planets, politics, plots, spaceships, bounty hunters... sky's the limit.
i think a big part of it for me is that i grew up with it. i understand there are people who get into it when they're kids or adults and they're not into it, and i'm not going to pretend that it's the end-all be-all for space fantasy media. but growing up, it was so fun. it was so full of imagination and possibility and it never got old for me. i loved the prequels dearly. because i grew up with it im familiar with the material and ive always known people who like similar things about it and view it the same way so even as ive gotten older i never really *grew out of it*. i thought i did, i thought i loss interest, but i came back once the mandalorian began to air and have been active ever since.
the thing that's kept me active, that's gotten me involved, that i still have love for and enjoy, is the people interact with because of it. i met my best friend euie @ligaw because of it. i've made friends & mutuals as an adult because of it (not limited to but including @rogueninja @kasseivor @sarma @coredrive). i'm mutuals with people who also enjoy it and talk about it with me (including but not limited to stina-adrien @gayluke and y @goldennavenue.) and i'm mutuals with people who've made original characters from it, like nina @dilfbailorgana and h @edeemir, who have in turn inspired me to create characters & have caused me to begin creating original characters again as well. my friends and i create from it, complain about it, trash it, and love it. it makes it worth it, i think. my favorite part of tumblr + one of my longtime favorite pieces of media = a whole mess but there's a lot to love and laugh at.
that being said... not only is there a mass of content to get into, there are many issues within both the media itself as well as those who participate in it, both the fans and the creators that predate the disney-ifcation of the franchise. i know *every* media and fandom has its issues, from bad to worse, but it would be remiss, to say the least, if i didn't mention it beforehand. there are both past and ongoing issues of racism, whitewashing, islamophobia, antisemitism, etc. it's present in the media and also present in the fandom, which is something i think anyone who's thinking about getting into star wars should know about.
so like... there it is. it's not perfect by any means, there are many issues both in fandom and in the media, but i still think there's so much to love, it CAN improve and it SHOULD improve and i love it enough to want to see that happen, + the fact that i get to share the good and the bad with cool people makes still caring about star wars worth it ❤️
#inbox#i namedropped some ppl im sorry if u did or didnt want 2 be namedropped i have no idea who's ok w being @'d <3#but like yeah tl;dr star wars is not the greatest and there are for sure problems but it still means a lot to me#i still got love for it and my friends and mutuals make it worth it ! <3
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May 7, 2021: TRON (1982)
Starting to leave lo-fi sci-fi with this one.
Can I just say, I am VERY excited for this one. Mostly because it’s hard to get more ‘80s than this movie, specifically in terms of computers. I’ll explain. Y’know Jurassic Park? Yeah, the same movie I’ve brought up far, FAR too many times this month. Is...is that my favorite sci-fi movie? Shit, it might be? I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the movie COUNTLESS times...I’m pretty sure it is! Huh. Go figure. Anyway, where was I?
Oh, right! Remember the most irritating character in the movie? This is, in my opinion, older sister Lex Murphy. In the book, for the record, she’s a VERY different character. She’s the youngest sibling amongst the two, and she’s a sports nerd who hates dinosaurs. And she’s also the most annoying character in the book, so at least they kept that consistent. However, you may be saying to yourself: “Jesus, this dude really loves Jurassic Park. Even in the intro for Tron, he’s talking about it. Why the hell does he keep bringing it up?”
Well, allow me to explain. When I was 9 years old, I was super into two things: dinosaurs and reading. You may think that I wasn’t very popular in school as a result. And the truth won’t surprise you. Anyway, on January 3rd, 2001, it was a cold morning in the supermarket when
...OK, lemme get to the point. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM!
See, this moment when Lex hacks into the computer to reactivate the locks (a task given to Tim in the book, but whatever) does two things. One, it makes Lex relevant in a film and story where she’s almost entirely unneeded. And two, it established something in the minds of movie-watchers everywhere: a completely misguided idea of what computer programming is.
And this is just one of MANY examples of Hollywood weirdly representing computers to the public. This was kind of a trend throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, as computers were beginning to become available to the public. Examples are:
WarGames (1983), dir. John Badham
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), dir. James Cameron
Revenge of the Nerds (1984), dir. Jeff Kanew
Weird Science (1985), dir, John Hughes
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), dir. Russo Bros
That last one isn’t a great example, and it’s not even within the right time period. I just love Arnim Zola, and he NEEDS TO RETURN to the MCU. Goddamn it, I want this guy back, complete with his full robot body! COME ON FIEGE, LOOK AT THIS GUY! That last one may or may not be my fanart for the character with my own design NEVERTHEGODDAMNLESS!
Look, all you gotta do is connect the various machinations of Arnim Zola to the foundations of AIM, which is easy given their link in the comics. Zola and his fellow Paperclip scientists helped fund Aldrich Killian’s AIM, and the project to give Zola his sick-ass robot body eventually wound up being a part of the project that would create the hovering robotic chair used by this guy.
THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER WANTED PLEASE
...Ahem.
Anyway, the weird-ass ways that Hollywood’s represented computers, hacking, and all other associated things can be traced back to 1982, when the first film to use mostly computer generated imagery for its setting was created. This was, of course, Disney’s TRON. And while I haven’t seen it before...I’ve see its sequel in theaters?
On a related note, Tron Legacy might be a mediocre film with a mediocre soundtrack, but GODDAMN DO IT LOVE THE FUCKING VISUALS. It’s genuinely my favorite aesthetic. That whole “outlined in light” thing? Goooooooh, BABY, how I love it.
Style over substance, but OH THE FUCKING STYLE
Anyway, despite that, I’m looking forward to seeing where the whole thing came from. I dig that style, too. Is there a name for those aesthetics? Let me know, so I can devote my life to it forever. Anyway, shall we get started?
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Recap
So, we start this movie off with a BANG, jumping into an arcade where two kids are playing none other than Lightcycle, and jumping into said Lightcycles to meet one of the drivers, Sark (David Warner). A sadistic program, he takes great pleasure in executing programs in Lightcycle races.
One of these programs, in fact, is being brought into imprisonment now, to be set against Sark in a race. The program, Crom (Peter Jurasik), speaks with fellow prisoner Ram (Dan Shor), where we get some idea of the lore of this place. Many programs believe in “the Users”, god-like figures who they believe created them and tell them what to do. However, the mysterious Master Control Program is rounding up the programs that believe in Users, taking over their functions or executing them. Diggin’ the lore so far.
In the real world, we meet Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer commanding his own program, Clu (also Bridges), and...look, I’m not sure what they’re doing, but OHHH. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM, BABY. The beautiful bullshit that this movie uses to denote computer activity and programming, it’s...MMMMMMMMMCHEF’SKISS, it’s so FUCKING GOOD!
Anyway, Clu’s apparently being sent to find some information, but he’s caught by Master Control. Jeff Bridges shows off some pretty over-the-top acting, but it’s charming as hell. Clu’s interrogated by Master Control Program (also Warner), and killed, or “derezzed”. This frustrates Flynn, but why?
Well, we get a clue from MCPs concentration with Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who arrives at his office in the COOLEST FUCKING HELICOPTER I HAVE EVER SEEN. I will never make enough money to have this helicopter, but maybe one day I can do it to a car, holy shit. Anyway, Dillinger lands and enters the ENCOM building, where he speaks with his computer table, which contains MCP.
Is this a thing with computer programmers? Do they, like, physically talk to their programs, and the programs talk back? Is this a thing that happens? Are the conversations interesting? Are IT people literally computer-whisperers? I gotta talk to my friends in computer sciences and IT about this.
Apparently, Flynn’s been snooping around their servers for a specific file, and they’re trying to stop him from getting that file. Meanwhile, in an office in the building, a man named Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) is blocked out of the system in an attempt to flush out Flynn’s location. Bradley’s summoned to the office for what seems like a routine interview, but is actually more of an investigation. Doesn’t go anywhere.
On a side note, by the way, it would appear that MCP is somewhat in control of Dillinger. Although, how and why is unknown. In any case, he’s attempting to amass power. Additionally, the fact that he’s directly speaking to one of the Users is...interesting. And on a second side note, Bradley is preparing something, a security program called “Tron”. That might come up later.
MEANWHILE, elsewhere in the building, a group of scientists are conducting an experiment to digitize solid matter and transport it into computers. It succeeds with an orange, much to their delight and celebration. One of these scientists is Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan), Flynn’s ex-girlfriend and Alan’s current girlfriend. They go to the arcade to reconvene with Flynn, much to Alan’s irritation.
Flynn not only owns the place, he’s also a game whiz, brilliant computer programmer, and recently fired ex-employee of ENCOM. He’s also been sneaking into the ENCOM system, and he details exactly why he’s moving against them. While working for ENCOM, he had started writing programs for some very complex video games, which could’ve have made him quite a bit of money. But Dillinger stole his files, and uses it to climb up the ranks to Senior Executive of ENCOM, while Flynn lounges in relative poverty. He’s planning on getting into the system to get evidence of Dillinger’s wrongdoing.
The trio plots to take down Dillinger and get the evidence together, breaking into ENCOM that night. Meanwhile, Dillinger’s meeting with Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes), a co-founder of the company, and one of the other scientists who made the digitizing machine. Dillinger says YOUR TIME IS OVER OLD MAN, and brushes off his concerns about he’s handing the company.
He’s not the only one with issues, as MCP decides to take over FOR Dillinger. Apparently, Dillinger’s talents are stealing data and creating Cybernet/HAL 9000. Good job, buddy. But that may end, when Alan goes to finish and install his program, Tron, which will hopefully take MCP down. Meanwhile, Lora and Flynn go to the basement with the digitizing machine. At the computer terminal, MCP decides to stop Flynn by...well, you know where this is headed.
Yup! Flynn’s brought into the computer by Lora’s machine, and is digitized and put into the game grid. And since we’ll be spending a lot of time there, I think I need to acknowledge something: I really love how this movie looks. The CGI is rudimentary, but it’s used surprisingly well. Consider that this is also made in an era where this is the kind of imagery that computers could literally generate at the time, and you’ve got a pretty great movie in-context.
Flynn, now in those spiffy program duds, is sent by the MCP to compete in the Game Grid, under Sark’s supervision and tutelage. He’s thrown into the brig with the other imprisoned programs, where he learns more about this world. Once brought into the throes of the Game Grid, he’s told that those who believe in the Users are to be trained poorly, ensuring their inevitable death. Meanwhile, those who renounce their belief will be spared. And of all the programs who still believe in the Users, there is none quite as powerful...as Tron (Bruce Boxleitner again).
We see Tron’s badass skills in Ultimate Frisbee. And OK, it’s not Ultimate Frisbee, but you throw discs that contain all of your essence and all of the things you’ve learned in your time there. You basically pour your entire essence and being into the disc as you throw it. So, really, it is Ultimate Frisbee, according to that one dude who’s REALLY into Ultimate Frisbee.
Flynn is commanded to play one of these games, and he winds fairly easily. However, when he defeats his opponent, he’s almost about to die. However, Flynn refuses to finish him off, leading Sark to do so instead. And Sark is tempted to kill Flynn as well, but he holds off at the last moment.
Flynn finally gets to meet Tron, where he feigns being a program that knows of his User, Alan. Of course, Tron looks exactly like Alan, which is why Flynn blurts out his name. But as they’re discussing this, Flynn, Tron, and fellow prisoner Ram are sent to compete in the Lightcycles. And, yes, I’m now looking for a game like this on my phone, because GODDAMN to I love Lightcycles. Can’t WAIT for the Disney World ride, oh my GOOOOD.
So, our guys get in the Lightcycles, and they outmaneuver Sark’s guys. They’re actually able to escape the arena and the Game Grid, making it outside the citadel. They encounter a, uh, bitstream, and soak up some energy before moving on. On the way, though, they’re nearly killed by Sark’s guys in tanks, and Tron is separated from Flynn an the unconscious Ram.
Flynn and Ram finds a place to rest and hide, and Flynn discovers that, as a User, he actually has the ability to somewhat manipulate the reality within the computer, and he makes a version of MCPs ships, the Recognizers, which resemble the villains in Flynn’s game that Dillinger stole. Now realizing that Flynn is a user, Ram asks him to help Tron, before dying and disappearing into pure code. Whoof.
Tron, meanwhile, ends up finding an input/output program named Yori (Cindy Morgan), who helps him in his escape. She takes him through the city, where we see some interesting designs for control programs, almost like a Hunger Games Panem sort of deal.
Flynn has trouble driving his ship, as he meets a “bit”, a small bit of data that only answers in yes or no. He, too, ends up in the city, and you start to notice that this film has a really heavy influence in our cyberpunk concepts and fashions today. Honestly, I really dig this whole thing. Kevin uses his programming powers to disguise himself as one of Sark’s guards, while Yori and Tron find their way through the main citadel of the guards.
They make their way through to the access tower, where they ask the program Dumont (Barnard Hughes again) to let them access the interface that will allow them to speak with the Users, specifically Alan. Reluctantly, Dumont agrees to let Tron through, where he goes to the access port. Which, for the record, looks awesome. He goes to speak with Alan, and he does that one pose. Y’know, the famous Tron pose that’s on the poster?
Yeah, that’s the good stuff. Anyway, he gets information written onto his disc that’ll allow him to kill MCP. Neat. And unfortunately, that’s exactly when Sark and his guys show up, taking Dumont away as Tron and Yori escape. Yori gets them onto a Solar Sailer, a device that will transport them to the central computer. Tron fends off some of Sark’s guys with video game noise kicks, and the Solar Sailer arrives to take them away.
Sark chases after them, but the pair manage to outrun his very cool-looking ship. MCP threatens to destroy Sark for his failure, but he promises that he’ll be able to get them. On the ship, Tron looks down at the side to see Flynn hanging on. Turns out that he was one of the guards that attacked the two. Tron pulls him up onto the ship, and Flynn reveals that he is, in fact, a user. He also reveals that Users aren’t exactly the gods that programs believe them to be.
Anyway, how’s Dumont doing?
Ah.
Well, the Recognizers find Tron, Yori, and Flynn, and chase after them on the light beam the Solar Sailer is on. However, with his User powers, Flynn manages to get the Sailer onto a different beam, while pulses on the original beam destroy the Recognizers.
Doesn’t end up mattering much, though, as Sark finally catches up and intercepts the group. The Solar Sailer is destroyed, and Yori and Flynn are thrown in the brig with Dumont, who’s still alive! Can’t say quite as much for Tron, apparently. But, again, I can only assume that Ton is still alive. We’ll see, though. Sark denies Flynn’s identity as a User for some reason (I mean, MCP told you who he was, but OK), and he sentences them all to death. Outside the ship, of course, is Tron, who’s hiding and waiting for the right time to strike. And that is when we finally see him.
Glorious. Absolutely goddamn glorious. MCP is taking the remaining programs that believe in Users, Dumont included, and incorporating them into his mass. Meanwhile, Sark has found Tron, and the two are fighting with a classic game of Ultimate Frisbee. Tron nearly defeats Sark entirely, but MCP revives him, and gives him the power to take out Tron. He grows gigantic, and it looks genuinely really convincing.
Flynn prepares to take out MCP once and for all, and kisses Yori just beforehand, which is weird as shit. He jumps into the program, and controls it just long enough for Tron to throw his disc at it and land the finishing blow. And with that, MCP is ended, and the threat of take over is gone! The I/O towers light up, and the Video Warriors have won! Don’t ask me what that means, I study birds.
And with ALL OF THAT DONE, Flynn gets the proof he needs from a print-out that, to be honest, I feel like he could’ve just typed up himself. It doesn’t look like that much. But, still, MCP is gone, Dillinger’s screwed, and Flynn now gets a cool-looking helicopter of his own, as the new CEO of ENCOM. And from there, he will become a deadbeat dad that abandons his kid to live in computers forever. Or something like that, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Tron Legacy.
And that’s Tron, a goofy movie of its time, but one that’s a lot of fun all the same. And with some effects that, to be honest...I actually really liked! But more on that...IN THE REVIEW! See you there!
#tron#tron 1982#steven lisberger#jeff bridges#bruce boxleitner#david warner#cindy morgan#barnard hughes#science fiction may#sci-fi may#user365#365 movie challenge#365 movies 365 days#365 Days 365 Movies#365 movies a year#useranimusvox#userbrittany
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2020-2021 Animation Watch(ed)list
I haven’t posted about animation in a while that I remember, and I know a lot of my followers are into it as much as me so I decided to make a list of the animated movies and series I watched on the past year or so, coupled with my short, spoilerless take on them. Enjoy!
Organized by
Things I saw for the first time
Things I rewatched
Under a cut for the sake of your dashboards! PS: I have not added any images yet. If you are interested in knowing more about the visuals of these movies, I might make an old fashion ask-prompted imageset list.
Part One: Things I saw for the first time
The Bear’s Famous Invasion of Sicily
Movie, 2019, Italian/French
9/10, a delightful little movie with amazing visuals. It feels like an animated picture book.
One of those “plot is in the title” media! I had never heard of this before but was heavily recommended it by my family members, who all loved it! It’s a sweet story, nothing groundbreaking but the unique colorful visual style alone makes it worth it.
The Castle of Cagliostro
Movie, 1979, Japanese
10/10. Reminded me of all the books i loved reading as a child
I assume its because it’s so old and the art style and themes are so different that it gets little to no love compared to other Ghibli movies, which is a shame! It’s fun with an endearing cast and as always, great animation and music
Mushishi
Series, 2006, Japanese
10/10 three episodes in I knew it was going to be my favorite series ever
One of the few things I’ve seen I’ll describe as life-changing. It’s absolutely lovely but never toots its own horn about it. Humble, calming, emotional and surprisingly mature. It’s pretty impossible to binge due to how intense the experience is. I just want to walk in the forest now...
FMA: Brotherhood
Series, 2009, Japanese
6/10 Dissapointing adaptation of a classic story
I read the manga for this when I was in middle school and remembered loving it. The animated version does an ok job of presenting the characters and worldbuilding and has some nice action scenes but overall looks really damn cheap and just. Not very good. Seeing I already knew most of the plot I did not have the element of discovery that made me marvel so much reading the original. It’s still a nice series but I really recommend reading it instead.
Code Lyoko (s1+2)
Series, 2003, french
3/10. 1.5 being for the opening song alone
This show sucks ass if I hadn’t been watching this with my bestie I would have dropped it two episodes in. The art style is ugly the stories are always the same and the first season has a (later removed thank fucking god) LITERAL “erase any consequences” button as a plot device in every episode. If you watch it for one thing let it be the nostalgia factor of early 00s Vidya Game Plot
The Legend of Hei
Movie, 2019, Chinese
7/10. Impressive visuals and a poor story
I finally watched this, peer pressured by the load of gifsets on my dashboard! It’s a sweet movie with really impressive animation, sometimes a bit too flashy for my taste (the action sequences go so ham they become not very readable...) but the story was just ok? The setting is barely explained and you are instead bombarded with vague epicspeech about powers and stuff that made me fondly remember Kingdom Hearts lol but that asides it’s a really good time! I need to watch more Chinese movies the few I know are just delightfully off the shits in how they approach action and I love that
Hunter x Hunter
Series, 1999, Japanese
9/10. Superior to the recent one!
I first got introduced to the series via the 2011 one. Comparatively, the 99 series focuses way less on action and way more on the characters, which I love because that fits my personal preferences! Despite mediocre filler episodes and some weird slight pointless plot changes, what it changes from the original manga doesn’t have much of an impact on the characters. The animation quality isn’t always consistent including a huge art style change for an arc (???) but it’s overall pretty nice. The series really shines in the last arc it adapts.
Oban Star-racers
Series, 2006, Japanese/french
9/10 a lovely surprise
This series is completly obscure despite having been created by people famous for their other series (Cowboy Bebop, Code Lyoko that i can name) and it’s a crime! It’s a kids show but without being stupid about it who tells the story of an inter-planetary race. If you liked that one scene in the star wars prequels you know what I mean. It’s got surprisingly nice animation for a TV series, and some truly great character design. The art style is a bit unique in a not for everyone sense, but I didn’t mind it much. It’s also THE most offensively 2000s series i’ve seen in terms of visuals. y2k kids assemble
The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon
Movie, 1963, japanese
8/10. Classic fairytale format with incredible visuals
Watched this for the art style because I know it inspired Samurai Jack, and it delievered! I dont’ have much to say about this one, it’s a very simply film but it’s sweet. For my pirates out there if you want to find it in good quality with english subtitles it’s VERY hard to find. If you just want to see the looks of it, it’s on Youtube with portugese subs.
We now enter the Gobelins Shorts Zone....!
My Friend Who Glows In The Dark
10/10 makes me cry each time
Pure delight...great animation writing everything. A little short about death and friendship but not in the way you imagine!
Colza
9/10
Visual treat...homely and nice :) not far from a 10 but a 9 because nothing about it is that groundbreaking
Sundown
9/10
If you’ve ever been ten minutes from failing a group project because of a single dude you will REALLY enjoy this. Loved the colors and personality
T’as vendu mes rollers?
10/10
It’s SUCH a sweet little short I loved that one so much
Dix-huit kilomètres trois
10/10
Surprisingly well written dialog. Visuals are great but the humanity of the characters carries this to another level
Un diable dans la poche
9/10
Amazing visuals and the most tense/creepy of Gobelin shorts i’ve ever seen. Chilling
La bestia
8/10
I had some issues with the pacing. Interesting story and visuals choices but I was not fond of the art style
Goodbye Robin
5/10
Confusing but predictable. Both at once??? Yes!
Le retour des vagues
6/10
Cool animation stuff but felt pretty pointless
***
Part Two: Things I rewatched
Ruben Brandt: Collector
Movie, 2018, Hungarian
10/10. Underrated as hell
Watched this fully blind for the first time in an animated festival and rewatched it with friends. It’s a crime I never see anyone talking about it given the amount of whining I see about the lack of both adult animation and 2D movies? This film is a unique love letter to art in the form of a weird mix of charming crime story and psychological horror with amazing visuals. I recommend watching it blind and also buying it to show appreciation for how nice it is!!! WATCH THIS MOVIE...
Mononoke
Series, 2007, Japanese
10/10 Visual/storytelling masterpiece in the weird shit departement
If you can stomach intense stuff watch this. The visuals are incredibly unique and beautiful and under the jewel tones and art direction high takes it’s a really cool horror series. My only obstacle to enjoying it the first time I saw it was how dense it is - simply put, it’s so...culturally Japanese it’s not very accessible to me who doesn’t know anything about the culture? Watching it for the second time helped understanding the stories more!
Corto Maltese in Siberia
Movie, 2002, french
9/10 but really close to ten. A great adaptation!
I’m a huge fan of the original comic so I entered this a biiiittttt suspicious it would suck but it was a really pleasant surprise! It has all the wonder and charm of the original and the animation was surprisingly good for the little budget. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s a sort of geopolitical action/adventure movie but with it’s own really poetic vibe to it. It’s almost impossible to find online but happens to be fully on YouTube so go ham I guess?
Redline
Movie, 2009, Japanese
10/10 cinema was invented for this, actually
Every review of this movie i’ve seen gives it five stars and starts by talking about how immensly stupid it is. I’m no different. It’s a masterpiece of escalating energy with the depth of a puddle and it fucking rules. It’s free on YouTube too so there really is no excuse to not watch it. Watched it for the first time on a huge cinema screen and despite this my second rewatch on my small laptop was as/even more enjoyable. If you watch this stoned with friends you might travel to another dimension
Spirited Away
Movie, 2001, Japan
10/10 deserves the love it gets
I watched this a single time as a kid and had little memory of it! I mean it’s Ghibli you know it’s going to be good as hell but this one rly shines in how colorful and detailed it is and in it’s world! It made me remember I had a huge crush on the dragonboy as a kid. I’m gay now
Kung-fu Panda (1&2)
Movie, Usa
10/10. KFP fucking rules
Honestly my favorite franchise of the whole disney/dreamworks/pixar hydra. It’s fun as hell, doesn’t skip a single beat and has amazing animation and character designs. If something is a good time I will not care if it’s deep or not and boy I fucking love these movies
Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas
Movie, 2003, Usa
5/10 Some great some really bad and overall generic
I tend to hate american cinema and this includes that era of animation I have no nostalgia for. Sinbad is in a weird place because I love adventure stories and the visuals of the movie absolutely deliver but it’s very predictable and TANKED by the addition of the female character, pushed in your face as “look we have woman!!!” despite her writing being misogynistic as hell lol. The evil goddess rules tho. This movie would have been a solid 9 if instead of the girl the two dudes had kissed
#j#animation#if you want links to these ill provide but not for the indie ones that arent free#i have no remorse p*rating disney or a movie thats over 50 but if its recent and underrated just legally get it!!!
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Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 12: Bleak Falls Barrow - Interior (part 3)
Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 12: Bleak Falls Barrow - Interior (part 3) by C_R_Scott
Chapters: 12/?
Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Tim Drake, Lucien Flavius
Additional Tags: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Skyrim/DCU crossover, Reluctant Dovahkiin | Dragonborn, Not Beta Read, Alternate Universe - Skyrim Fusion, Modded Skyrim, Skyrim Spoilers, Tim Drake is Dragonborn | Dovahkiin, Batfamily-centric (DCU), Tim Drake-centric
Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter
Summary:
Tim and Lucien reach the draugr crypts.
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"It smells of death down here."
Tim couldn't disagree with Lucien as they slowly made their way into what was clearly the crypt portion of the Barrow. The scholar had said earlier that these places were often where the ancient Nords of the Dragon Cult buried their dead. There was a strong miasma of decay and rot in the air, overlaid with an aroma of some kind of pungent piney incense that made his head hurt. He wondered if there was something mixed in with whatever was burning in cauldrons that illuminated the crypt. Tim didn't think he smelled anything like it in the halls before reaching this place.
Then Tim caught sight of the nearest body on one of the stone slabs of the crypt and froze as he took in their sight.
"Lucien?" Tim asked. "How old are these bodies supposed to be?"
"Well, considering they've likely been entombed since at least the First Era, probably two to three thousand years old. Why?"
Tim looked at one that was wrapped tightly in linen cloth, with only their head exposed. Their skin was grey, leathery, and seemed to be stretched tightly around the mostly desiccated muscles and bones of the corpse. "It's just... Clearly there's some sort of mummification process that was used to preserve the bodies. But..." He looked to the next couple of nearby slabs. One upper slab held nothing but a skeleton. Any flesh that had been on the body had long since decayed away to dust. On the other lower slab, though, was a completely exposed and perfectly preserved mummified corpse. Any clothing had deteriorated away to nothing, but the rest of the body was left behind. A little further down, Tim noted that some corpses appeared to have been preserved with both their bodies and ancient armor intact. "...There's so much inconsistency with their states of preservation and decay. And shouldn't exposure to the air have caused the rates of decay to increase in all exposed bodies, not just random ones?"
For a moment, there was no response from the normally chatty scholar. Tim lifted his gaze from the corpse he'd been studying to find that Lucien was studying him again. The younger dark haired man suddenly felt very self-conscious. "Wh-what?"
"You're.... familiar with mummification processes and their intended results?"
Tim felt his ears begin to burn and his face felt warmer. He turned away from Lucien's curious gaze. "I... uh... That is, my parents were archaeologists," he admitted hesitantly.
That piqued Lucien's interest immediately. "Really? With which university or museum were they tenured?"
Tim shook his head. "Not important. Let's keep moving."
Lucien frowned and stood his ground. "No. I'd like to know. Where do your parents work. Perhaps my family knows them? The Flavius's are quite well-known to the archaeological circles throughout Cyrodiil. "
Silently Tim cursed his luck as he tried to move further into the crypt. "No. They wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because they're dead!"
Tim hadn't meant to shout, and he winced as his words seemed to be amplified in the cavernous stone room.
Lucien stared at him with wide-eyed surprise before casting his gaze off to the side guiltily. "I- I'm sorry."
Tim took a deep breath and closed his eyes to steady his nerves. He raked his fingers through his hair. "They died a long time ago," he said in a more quiet tone. Then he slowly opened his eyes. "Now can we drop this please and keep moving forwa--" There was a movement behind Lucien that immediately drew his gaze, and Tim felt his heart leap to his throat. Immediately he drew up his bow with a nocked arrow and shouted, "Lucien! Get down!"
"What?!" Instead of getting out of the way like Tim had ordered, Lucien reflexively jerked his head around to see what had alarmed his bodyguard so much and froze in fear. While the pair had been bickering, one of the preserved corpses clad in armor had moved themselves off of their stone slab and had risen up behind the scholar, a large ancient broadsword in hand. From the sockets of where the corpse's eyes had been were two glowing blue lights.
"Damnit Lucien! Move!" Tim cursed as he changed his tactic immediately upon seeing Lucien freeze. He rushed forward and put himself between the man and the corpse, shouldering Lucien out of the way while using the wooden length of his bow to try and block the blow from the sword.
Fortunately, while the sword bit into the bow, the wood held firm and did not break. Tim noticed how the sword was now stuck in his bow, so he used this to his advantage. He twisted his bow hard to the right and managed to twist the sword right out of the hand of the undead monster. As the creature was disoriented, Tim swept its legs out from under it with a low spinning kick that sent it crashing to the floor. Then he pulled out one of his steel daggers and plunged it into the zombie's skull. Tim watched as the blue glow from the corpse's eyes faded back into darkness.
Before Tim could even consider his victory over the creature, he heard Lucien give out a cry of warning. The young man shifted his gaze just in time to see another zombie swinging a spiked mace at him. The weapon caught him on his left side and flung him across the room. Tim screamed in pain as he clutched his injured left upper arm, blood pouring profusely through his fingers. Pain also raked across his back from where it had collided with a stone pillar.
Tim could hear the zombie shuffling towards him with a growl, but he could barely move. He struggled to push himself up with his good arm, but his hand kept slipping in his own blood and his torso just didn't want to bear his weight. His vision was also blurring in and out.
"Lucien, run!" he cried out as he tried to drag himself in a direction that would give Lucien a clear opportunity to escape the way they'd come in. He turned his head to face the zombie, so he make sure the creature had its undead eyes on him only.
Suddenly, flames flew across Tim's vision. His blue eyes widened in terror as he felt the heat of the fire warming his face and the zombie seemed to ignite right in front of him. The way the flames climbed across the body of the zombie... The smell of burning flesh...
In that moment, Tim was transported back to Helgen. Screams of townspeople and soldiers running in terror... A black dragon scorching everything in sight... The feeling of greedy flames scorching his own flesh...
As the zombie's body fell, lifeless and burning, Tim barely registered the sight of Lucien stepping into view, tendrils of residual flames dancing around his fingers and dissipating into the air.
"Timothy! Are you alright?!" Lucien was right in front of him and calling out to him, but to Tim it was as the scholar's voice was very far away. "Timothy!"
Tim's vision blurred again, and this time all sight faded as he felt himself fall into a blissful quiet darkness.
***
Pain was the first thing Tim felt as he came back to consciousness. He felt he was lying on his back, head supported by something soft, but everything from his waist up seemed to be throbbing with pain. Tim groaned softly as he tried to open his eyes, but couldn't.
"Oh thank the Eight," Lucien said from somewhere nearby at his side. Tim felt himself being gently propped up. He felt a small glass tube being pressed to his lips. "Drink this, slowly." Lucien instructed.
Tim tried to do his best to comply, though he felt some of the liquid escape the corner of his lips, most of it did make its way down his throat. He coughed a little and the tube was pulled back. "Easy, easy... It's ok... We're safe. There aren't any more draugr here. Just rest and let the potion do its work."
He felt himself being laid back down again. Tim let his head turn to the side where he heard Lucien's voice, and he felt fur beneath his cheek. Silently, he guessed his own fur cloak had been turned into a makeshift pillow. Slowly, Tim attempted to open his eyes. It took a bit, but his blurry vision cleared and he could see Lucien sitting next to him, a deeply worried look on his face as the scholar was watching something on his upper left arm.
It was only then that Tim realized that his upper body was bare. His leather jerkin, his gloves, and the undershirt he wore beneath them had all been removed and set into a pile beside him. Slowly, Tim realized that Lucien was studying the way the new wound from the spiked mace's blow on his left arm was healing. Based on the way the scholar was frowning, Tim guessed it wasn't healing well.
"Mara's mercy," Lucien murmured with a sad shake of his head. "These burns are terrible. The potion is trying to heal the new mace wound, but it's so sluggish. The already damaged flesh just doesn't want to mend." Lucien's gaze traveled up to Tim's face, his expression full of concern. "You shouldn't even be here. You should be in a healing temple. Fighting with these kinds of injuries... you could cripple yourself or worse."
Tim felt awful at the look Lucien was giving him. He closed his eyes and turned away slightly. "I know. I'm sorry."
"I just want to understand why," Lucien said gently. "Why would you take a risk on such a mission to a place like this? Why did you agree to be my bodyguard knowing you were hurt?
"I... I have nothing left," Tim choked out. "I lost everything I had at... at...."
Comprehension dawned on Lucien. "You were at Helgen," he whispered. "These burns were from that dragon, weren't they?"
Tim nodded.
Lucien sighed. After a long moment, he spoke up again. "There's more to your story than just surviving Helgen, isn't there?"
"There is..." Tim revealed reluctantly. He opened his eyes but didn't look at Lucien. "But you won't believe me."
Lucien's curiosity rose up again. "You're so sure about that?"
"Mostly. For people here, I think my story might be impossible to believe."
"Hmm... I don't know... I tend to believe in some rather impossible sounding things."
Tim's lip quirked a little. "Like what?"
"Like... I believe an entire race of people disappeared without a trace one day, leaving behind underground cities and settlements full of metal automatons that still run to this day thousands of years later."
Tim stiffened and blinked in surprise as Lucien continued.
"I also believe that there exists powerful mystical scrolls that are simultaneously archives of both past and future events, but that reading such scrolls can cost a person both their sight and possibly their sanity."
Slowly, Tim turned his head back towards Lucien as the scholar continued.
"And, I also believe that at some point between the end of the Second Era and the beginning of the Third that there was a period where time itself 'broke' into multiple paths and all contained different parallel realities where similar events had different conclusions... or didn't happen at all... before converging back upon itself to form the current timeline we are existing in now."
Tim finally looked at Lucien with a confused, intrigued, uncertain look upon his face.
Lucien smiled at him reassuringly. "If you'd like me to go on, as a scholar of Tamrielic history I can tell you this world is honestly no stranger to impossible sounding things. While I do admit most of the general population can be rather closed minded to anything that might disturb their day-to-day world-views, as a scholar I can promise you that I will listen to your tale with an open mind. That way, if there is something that is greatly troubling you, as I have been suspecting since we started this journey together, I'll do my best to help find you a solution you can live with."
Tim felt his eyes whell up with unshed tears, but rubbed them away with the heel of his good hand. "I think... I might take you up on that offer," he finally relented, his voice a touch thick with emotion. "But not until we get out of this place. If I start down my rabbit hole now, we're liable to have another draugr ambush us."
"Fair enough... But really Timothy, how can we continue forward? You're hurt very badly. Perhaps we should just go back the way we came?"
Tim gingerly began to sit up, using his right arm for support. Lucien helped steady him as he shook his head. "No. I can't leave here without that Dragonstone Jarl Balgruuf's wizard send me to fetch. It could be a key to figuring out why that dragon attacked Helgen and maybe how to stop it."
"I see."
Tim motioned for his bag. When Lucien pulled it within reach, he reached inside and fished out the jar of ointment and some linen wraps. "If you can help me with this, it numbs the pain from the burn and keeps it from getting worse. If I can just avoid direct hand-to-hand combat as much as I can through the rest of this place, I think I'll be ok."
"I'll help with my magic as much as I can as well," Lucien added.
While Lucien helped him with the ointment application, Tim grabbed another healing potion and drained the vial. While the healing of the mace wound was slow, it was better than nothing. They both also took some time to eat and drink. Once they'd finished their meal and Tim had his armor back in place over the thick layer of ointment Lucien had applied, Tim felt worlds better.
"Alright," Tim said has he grasped his bow and stood before Lucien. "Let's track down that elf and find that 'Hall of Stories' he was talking about."
-------------------------
Warning: This is being pantsed more than plotted, and this is not beta read. We'll see where this journey takes us. Mostly I'm just doing this for my own amusement.
Note1: If you have any questions about the playthrough and Tim's feelings/experiences that aren't described in the chapters, please ask me in the comments. I'll do my best to answer your questions as best I can.
Note2: If it's a little unclear, the three impossible-sounding things Lucien believes in are (1) the mass disappearance of the Dwemer/Dwarven race, (2) the existence of Elder Scrolls, and (3) the event known as a Dragon Break, which are all canon things in Elder Scrolls lore.
Also, Tim's burns and how they're negatively affecting his healing. The concept I'm imagining is that while he was at Helgen, he was very badly burned during Alduin's attack. However, at no point did he get enough potions to heal that massive a burn completely. Like, imagine if his HP in game was dragged down to a sliver, but he was only able to consume enough potions to bring him back up to 10% HP.
So the burns never completely healed, and Tim has very little knowledge of the options available to him to treat them in this world.
I have a headcanon about this verse that people get scars when they get injured, but the healing they receive (potions or spells) is not enough to heal it completely. It either ends up leaving a scar through healing naturally over time, or being completely healed far later (days or weeks) after the initial injury took place.
So while Tim's burns are only partially healed, they're in a really sensitive state. If he gets new injuries on those burned areas, they won't heal right with either potions or magic, which are a huge risk to his overall health. When they are eventually healed completely, he will be left with massive scars for the rest of his life.
#elder scrolls dc#fanfiction#tim drake#skyrim fanfiction#batfam fanfic#red robin#batfam#crossover#lucien flavius#wip#afewnovelideas
#elder scrolls dc#fanfiction#tim drake#skyrim fanfiction#batfam fanfic#red robin#batfam#crossover#lucien flavius#wip#afewnovelideas
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DMBJ Explore with the Note Ep 4
Explore with the Note Ep 4 watch thread!
Since Ep 3 had no updates to any of the counts, we start ep 4 off with the following:
Season 2 Xiaoge Rescue Count: 2 for Wu Xie, 2 for protagonists, 3 for everyone
Season 2 Wu Xie Swoon Count: 0 Season 2 Evil Hair Count: 2
Cumulative Xiaoge Rescue Count: 12 for Wu Xie, 17 for protagonists, 18 for everyone
Cumulative Wu Xie Swoon Count: 6
- Now that I have some idea of the colour schemes, I can identify which opening credits shots are from flashback scenes and which are from Wu Xie era scenes
- Ah yes, the snek fishies. A clue to consider, then forget about while we look at other things.
- Aww, he's so happy to see the baby corpse vase
- And the paintings are far more interesting than whatever might be inside the vase. Although he's moving it around far too easily for the baby corpse to still be in there, I think
- Poor confused Wu Xie. I don't blame him. The stuff in this tomb and its design apparently places it in two different time periods which are like 1000 years apart
- Oooh, bubbles
- Good move on the jumping back, turning off your torch, and getting a knife ready
- Although there appears to now be light coming from the water itself
- Hahah, it's Pangzi and Xiaoge
- Oh, nice, this time they're not subbing Men Youping as Pokerface.
- And of course Xiaoge is the first one he asks if he's alright, and goes to help out of the water XD
- lol, even Pangzi calling him out on that
- Aww, he's so worried about the mark on Xiaoge's arm
- "What happened?!"
"Oh nothing, just a demon"
"..."
- Ah, Pangzi knows what that is
- ...and ofc Wu Xie only knows what it is from classic poetry texts
- *googles ptomaine gas*
- Ugh, yeah, you don't want to be breathing that. Sounds unpleasant
- Wu Xie is so over everything rn
- Except Xiaoge, anyway
- I really like S2 Pangzi. He's got the right blend of competence and humour. Comic relief without being just a caricature like S1 Pangzi
- And Wu Xie showing off his smarts, which is cute. It's moments like these that reminds me he's got an architecture degree
- I think this is the first time we've heard Wang Zanghai's name in the dramas so far
- And Xiaoge seems to certainly know the name and not be happy about it
- Oh, this looks like a Xiaoge flashback?
- More fucking swimming, of course
- But without a diving suit this time - And that's all it was. So interesting. So groundbreaking. I've never seen anyone swimming through dark murky water in this show before
- This Wu Xie is a much more expressive Wu Xie than S1. So many smiles!
- And such a brilliant little shit
- I'm really liking the Wu Xie/Pangzi interactions so far. Well, all of them, but these moments are so good. They're reminding me of the Chongqi interactions
- Oh, more bubbles, I'm sure this will be FINE
- Oh, it's just the water draining out
- Pangzi complaining he can't see because of the fog, but really, I'd think the darkness would be the bigger problem.
- They've only got a couple of torches, and this is a large room and even larger pit that that staircase is going down into
- Wu Xie, what did you expect, asking if he can read something from such a distance?
- And then looking at Xiaoge to see if it's going to be okay to do this
- These steps & the twig-things on them are remarkably dry for having been submerged in water only a couple of minutes ago
- OK, now that I'm not distracted by speaking or, like, plot (or pingxie), the bgm is actually drawing my attention and dear god, yes, it really is awful and annoying
- Hahah, dunking on both Sanshu's and Pangzi's English skills in one go
- This Wu Xie is a lovely chaos gremlin
- Who hasn't completely lost all sense of caution yet, it seems
- I mean, Pangzi, I'm not sure you'd be saying those things if you heard the kinds of stories Sanshu was telling bby!Wu Xie in those flashbacks
- Then again, you probably would
- "Besides, I can't leave Xiaoge" ❤️
- So Xiaoge probably left those marks
- This look on Pangzi's face as Wu Xie just throws away all the caution he'd been arguing with Pangzi with to go chasing after Xiaoge XD
- I have to say, S1 was far superior in terms of set lighting. Most of the time it's so hard to make out anything. Like, I know they're meant to be in a tomb, but would it have killed them to add more set lighting so we could actually see what's going on more consistently?
- I do love this Xiaoge's unimpressed looks.
- Oh, it's the mirror
- Again, everything down here is so remarkably dry
- Dry enough to have got dusty in mere minutes!
- Intense Xiaoge Stares! All the stares, all the time, all at Wu Xie
- Ooh, old diving equipment. Well spotted.
- That airtank being crushed like that does not seem to be a good sign
- I'm with Pangzi. What sounds? The bgm was drowning out everything except speech
- Hahahah. Pangzi all like, no, we don't need to go up, it's not that dangerous, you're just scaring yourself. Then one mention of the Drought Demon and he's like y'know, on second thoughts....
- Xiaoge does like his disappearing tricks
- And reappearing ones
- This is a good shot for a vague creepiness factor
- Baby is so worried
- Oooh, time for dramatic music while we look at dramatic skyscapes and seascapes
- Wait, is all that water running backward?
- I have no idea how that is meant to symbolise remembering things, but apparently it does
- And now, a Xiaoge flashback
- The vases in the tomb 20 years ago were amazingly clean. Somehow they went somewhere between 500-1500 years staying as clean as if new, then in 20 years they got covered in waterscum.
- I am impressed at the seals on their equipment, if dude was able to bring a sketchpad along on a dive and have it be perfectly dry when he took it out to draw on.
- And all those notebooks, too
- The flashbacks get MUCH better set lighting
- Boys, boys, don't fight over the priceless antique porcelain like that. You're gonna drop it and break it.
- Hahah, Xiaoge's trying so hard to ignore this girl
- Even when she does give him something interesting to look at
- Well, that explains why all the vases were over there and in that order 20 years later for Wu Xie to find
- This kind of chatter is exactly the kind of chatter I'd expect on an excursion to look at things, or a group project. A little bit is relevant, most is just random chatter, and some might actually eventually mean something once they talk it out. It's great
- Oh, if only you knew, Wenjin. If only you knew
- Hahah, Wenjin yelling at everyone and telling them to stay put, while Xiaoge just calmly ignores her while he puts his backpack on and walks off
- lol, and then he just staaaaares at her until she lets him go
- Ah, she knows Sanshu so well
- She's trying to be the grownup here
- Poor Wenjin. She really can't win either was when she was stuck on an expedition with both Sanshu and Xiaoge
- Apparently these guys all managed to make it through the hallway without any of them triggering the traps
- Well done, kiddos
- Poor Wenjin playing babysitter to all these kids, though
- At least 20 years ago the stonework stayed wet after the water receding instead of mysteriously drying off
- Well. Most of it, anyway
- The floor, at least
- I mean, like, kids. You didn't have to follow him. He didn't ask you to.
- You just decided to
- Well, they were right, Sanshu was there
- Just not the one they thought he was
- Oh, that's a door there
- I love the way Wu Xie and Pangzi in this tend to shine their flashlights in each other's faces to indicate "I think you're full of shit"
- Oh, clever Wenjin, the first one to figure it out
- So much staring at each other
- Season 2 Evil Hair Count: 3
- Though so far it's just sneaking down to tickle Wenjin's neck
- And they go from perfectly dry corridor to wet-floored room
- For no discernable reason
- And we end the episode mid-flashback, with them gushing over how pretty the Heavenly Palace is
- And it really is quite pretty
- No updates to either the Rescue Count or the Swoon Count, and only the single last-minute update to the Evil Hair Count
So, we end with:
Season 2 Xiaoge Rescue Count: 2 for Wu Xie, 2 for protagonists, 3 for everyone
Season 2 Wu Xie Swoon Count: 0
Season 2 Evil Hair Count: 3
Cumulative Xiaoge Rescue Count: 12 for Wu Xie, 17 for protagonists, 18 for everyone
Cumulative Wu Xie Swoon Count: 6
#alicia watches dmbj#daomu biji#dmbj#explore with the note#wu xie#xiaoge#zhang qiling#wang pangzi#iron triangle
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Film Review - Justice League vs The Fatal Five
Hello all, and welcome to my first review on Tumblr in the wake of Facebook scrapping its Notes functionality, thereby forcing me to shift platforms (a practice I hope I won’t have to keep repeating). To kick off my use of this new posting platform, I’m reviewing one of the two new films I got for Christmas, or rather the two films that are totally new to my collection; the other films I got were better copies of films I already own. Anyway, we’re taking another dip into the world of DC Comics direct-to-home release animation with a look at Justice League vs The Fatal Five.
Before we get in the review itself, however, quick bit of house-keeping for anyone who hasn’t read one of my reviews before. The structure of my reviews is intro paragraph or two, a plot summary for anyone who has seen the film before and wants to refresh their memory, then the review itself. The plot and the review are both clearly labelled, so to avoid spoilers just scroll past the section headed as ‘plot’ to the one labelled ‘review’. Got all that? Ok, then here we go…
Plot (adapted from Wikipedia):
In the 31st century, Mano, Tharok and Persuader of the Fatal Five attack the Legion of Super-Heroes' headquarters for their time sphere. Star Boy, Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 try to keep them back but fail. Just as the villains activate the sphere, Star Boy leaps at them and is taken along. Arriving in the 21st century above Earth, Star Boy triggers a boobytrap Brainiac 5 programmed, trapping the villains inside the sphere in a stasis field. Star Boy comes down in Gotham City while the sphere ends up in Metropolis. Star Boy discovers his supply of medicine, needed to stabilize his mind, was destroyed in his rough landing. As his medicine doesn't exist yet, Star Boy's increasingly erratic behaviour gets him apprehended by Batman and taken to Arkham Asylum. The stasis-locked time machine is picked up by Superman and brought to the Justice League's headquarters for analysis.
Ten months later, Jessica Cruz is struggling with the trauma of her near-death by a murderer who killed her friends, making her afraid to leave her apartment. To add to her anxiety, she has been chosen by a Green Lantern power ring and Wonder Woman keeps trying to recruit her into the Justice League. In Gotham, Miss Martian is trying to prove herself to Batman for membership in the League, but her inexperience works against her good intentions. While trying to unlock the secret of the strange sphere, Mister Terrific accidentally brings down the stasis field, freeing its occupants. Superman and Mister Terrific fight them, but Superman is wounded by Persuader's axe and the villains escape.
Star Boy's memory is jogged by a news report of the fight, and he breaks out of Arkham. The Justice League members compare notes about these mysterious assailants and discover they are time travellers; and from Star Boy's words, Batman deduces that they are after Jessica. When the three villains attack Jessica, Star Boy comes to her rescue, followed by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Mister Terrific, and Miss Martian, who force them into flight after a hard struggle. In the aftermath, Star Boy and Jessica form a close friendship based on the fact that both of them are struggling with their mental health.
To find out more about their guests from the future, Batman instructs Miss Martian to telepathically link them (Batman, Miss Martian and Jessica) with Star Boy's memories, thus learning about the Legion. They witness a battle between the Legion and the Fatal Five, which ended with the capture of Mano's lover Emerald Empress and Validus; as there was no prison that could hold them in the 31st century, the Legion took them to Oa in the 21st century. They also learn that if Star Boy misses more than two doses of his medication, it will cease to work and prevent him being in the Legion.
Upon their awakening, the League receives an ultimatum from Mano: Surrender Jessica or all American cities will be destroyed by bombs created by Tharok. The first bombings start in Metropolis, forcing the Justice League to move out. Left behind with Star Boy in the Watchtower, Jessica is contacted by Tharok through her ring, forcing her to surrender herself to the Five and enable them entry to Oa's prison cells. Despite interference by Kilowog and Salaak, Emerald Empress and Validus are freed, and when Jessica fights back, Persuader cleaves her ring in two. Afterwards, Emerald Empress has her Emerald Eye of Ekron steal the energy of the Central Power Battery, and the Five return to Earth to recover the time sphere.
In the meantime, Star Boy discovers Jessica's absence and informs the League. The heroes proceed to the time machine's location, a secret US military base, where the Fatal Five force them into battle. Emerald Empress subdues the Justice League and then initiates her master plan to use the Lantern's power to destroy Earth's sun, wipe out humanity, and thus prevent the formation of the Legion in their time. On Oa, Jessica recovers her faith and determination, and by reciting the Green Lantern oath, she reassembles her power ring. Brought back to her apartment by the ring, Jessica flies to the base and prevents the Fatal Five from escaping back to their own era by bringing the whole base down upon them, killing the supervillains.
Superman, Jessica and Star Boy race after the Eye, but are too late to prevent it from plunging into the sun. As the star cracks apart, Star Boy sacrifices himself by lowering himself into the sun's core and using his powers to reverse the fracturing. In the final scene as the Justice League members commemorate Star Boy's heroism, they are joined by the Legion who have come from the future to honour their fallen comrade. Batman also grants Miss Martian admission into the League for her bravery.
Review:
This film is basically an original story not adapted from anything in particular, and although it is done in the style of the DC Animated Universe that originally revolved around the Batman, Superman and Justice League animated shows of the 1990’s and 2000’s, it is apparently meant to be a stand-alone narrative. Cast-wise, we get back the like of Kevin Conroy, George Newbern and Susan Eisenberg to reprise their roles as the DC Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) from the Justice League animated series, and well-known voice actors like Kevin Michael Richardson and Tara Strong also feature in this production.
In terms of character, we’re certainly getting a bit of a different Justice League line-up while also getting DC’s future team the Legion of Superheroes worked into the mix, primarily through the character of Star Boy and the film’s antagonists the Fatal Five. In terms of the League itself, the customary League core that is the DC Trinity is in place, but then we have no Flash, Miss Martian in place of the better-known Martian Manhunter, and Mr Terrific to add to the team’s diversity in place of using Cyborg. Finally, we have Jessica Cruz as the team’s Green Lantern, and it’s the use of her and Star Boy in this film that makes this film stand out from any other DC films, because both of these heroes are neurodiverse.
As fans of more modern DC comics stories, or anyone who has looked into this film’s behind-the-scenes extras, will know, Star Boy is a schizophrenic, but by the 31st century there is medication to manage the behaviours that this form of neurodiversity can cause, so it’s not an uncommon idea among DC’s writers to show Star Boy getting trapped in our time without this medication. During the Justice League era between Infinity Crisis and Final Crisis (not long before DC did its new 52 reboot and decided to stick to buying pre-2000 Marvel lore), the comics did in fact do this as part of the Legion coming back in time to bring back Wally West, the then-Flash who had become stuck in the Speed Force with his wife and children during the Infinity Crisis.
By the same token, Jessica Cruz is a Green Lantern who has crippling anxiety following a traumatic event, so she’s having to use a lot of willpower to overcome that anxiety and function like anyone else. Given that Green Lanterns are chosen based on their ability to overcome great fear, not only does it make a lot of sense for someone battling anxiety to be chosen as a Green Lantern, but it also very effectively demonstrates a much more positive and healthier take on mental illness in the world of superheroes. Granted, DC isn’t being particularly original in this regard; Iron Man’s alcoholism in the comics and his PTSD in the MCU show that Marvel has at least one heroic character that they’ve been willing to showcase as a positive example of what people can do despite being mentally different to others. Sadly, neither company has yet done a good, positive, accurate take on autism yet, but then if they did, I’d have less fodder for my novel writing.
Putting two neurodiverse heroes at the core of this film really makes it a great one to watch just because for once it means the neurodiverse characters aren’t the stereotypical crazed villain types and the idiotic stereotypes that stem from such misuse of the mentally divergent in fiction get combatted a little. Granted, it would have been nicer if DC and WB could have demonstrated this kind of pro-mental health attitude in its live-action film wing by not making the Joker solo film and doing something more akin to this film in its place. There is no doubt in my mind that DC and WB need to put more of the staff behind their animated films on DCEU projects if it ever hopes to seriously compete with the MCU.
Otherwise, the film is largely just a good diversion; well-animated, well-performed, but not a huge level of plot depth despite putting two neurodiverse characters front and centre on the side of the heroes. Hopefully going forward DC and WB can address that on some future film, either animated or live-action. For now, I’m going to content myself by handing down a score of 9 out of 10.
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ABOUT THE AU/FAQ:
Welcome to this Pink Diamond Steven / Homeworld Steven AU!
This AU takes place where the Homeworld Gems came to Earth earlier than they did in canon. Steven hadn’t been born yet. Everything played out a LOT differently.
Lapis was never freed from the Mirror, and the crystal gems are defeated by the Gem Destablizers. In a last ditch effort to free her loved ones, Rose Quartz turns herself in and then reveals herself as Pink Diamond on Homeworld. The Crystal Gems are left on Earth and Pink Diamond is taken back to Homeworld to answer for her crimes and to hopefully make amends with her fellow Diamonds. Unbeknownst to anyone on Homeworld, “Rose” was already pregnant. Before Steven was born, she begged the Diamonds to not take their anger out on him, explaining how Steven would be a new life, a new person. Blue Diamond was the only one to really listen, taking the infant into her court, then raising him until present day. Yellow Diamond has only recently accepted Steven has a separate entity from Pink Diamond; White Diamond is… White Diamond.
___________________________________________________________
Our Discord!: https://discord.gg/Tg53rC8
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F.A.Q
Q: What is your Main Blog/Account?
A: It’s Egbeat!
Q: How did steven end up on homeworld?
A: Read the above.
Q: Is Rose still Pink Diamond in this AU?
A: Yes Read the above.
Q: How old is Steven?
A: 13 as of the start of the comic.
Q: Does Steven know who his dad is?
A: Not yet.
Q: Does Steven know Connie?
A: Yes
Q: What do the other Diamonds think of Steven?
A: Blue projects her love of pink diamond onto Steven. Yellow is the one who recognizes Steven as an individual the most, and while being strict, has come around to respect him more. White sees Steven as just Pink Diamond playing a silly game.
Q: Are the asks canon? If so how does Steven feel about them?
A: Short Answer: Its not that Deep. Long Answer: If you want to hold them up as canon they are meant to be questions coming from gems of his court or other courts. In reality they are just for fun and you shouldn’t stress on it.
Q: What Gender is Steven?
A: Biologically he is Male, but he has only been called by He/Him pronouns by his Pearl, and Blue Diamond. Everyone else calls him by She/Her pronouns. So call him or her whatever! He doesn’t mind.
Q: Has Steven ever interacted with the Zoomans?
A: His interactions are limited. Steven has a disdain for organic life that is fitting of the diamond he is, maybe even more disdain than the others. He sees them as below himself for not possessing gems. This also feeds into his major self esteem issues.
Q: Does Steven have a Colony?
A: No and Yes. Technically he is claiming earth as a new colony, but we all know hes gonna run into a small problem with that claim.
Q: What does Steven eat?
A: Zooman Fruit! (The same Fruit the Humans in the Human Zoo eat)
Q: STEVEN HERE IS EVERYTHING THATS HAPPENING AND THE TRUTH BEHIND [BLANK]!!!
A: Just… don’t do this. I won’t answer it and this defeats the point of the blog.
Q: Who is the gem closest to Steven?
A: His Pearl.
Q: Who raised Steven as a baby?
A: Blue diamond would claim to have done just that. In all honesty it was all the efforts of Blue Pearl, but homeworld being homeworld the credit goes to her owner.
Q: How much does Steven know?
A: He knows about everything. (although admittedly through biased perspectives) He knows about Rose being Pink, about her faking her shattering, all the nine yards. It was a lot for Steven to take in.
Q: What are Steven’s thoughts on the other diamonds?
A: Steven cares for Blue and loves her, but is mostly cautious towards her after something she tried to do to him. He respects and holds Yellow in the highest regard, wanting to be exactly like her! He respects White, but is scared of her at the same time. He generally feels highly of all the Diamonds in some way, and feels like any fault they have is his or his mom’s fault.
Q: Where is Canon Spinel? Is Spinel still in the garden?
A: Spinel will not be appearing in this AU as of right now. I have no plans for her. So I guess… yes, she is still in the garden.
Q: How does it feel to have gotten the Color Scheme, Gemcut, and function on Homeworld correctly?
A: I only got the latter correct! The Design of the gem herself is none other than the talented and lovely @joojdraws!
Q: Has Steven ever been to the Human Zoo?
A: He owns the Human Zoo, so yes!
Q: Will you be posting this comic on Tapas or any other site?
A: https://tapas.io/series/Homeworld-Steven
Q: Were the Rose Quartz gems unbubbled, or shattered?
A: Unbubbled. They work in the Human Zoo and some work in Steven’s personal Guard.
Q: Is it ok If I draw your Steven and my OC? Or just draw your Steven in general!
A: Of course! I’d love to see it! Please make sure to @ me or leave me an ask so I can see it!
Q: Why is Steven so mean?
A: His childhood has been riddled with horrible things done to him or that hes done to others. He was made into a Diamond at the age of 8, and that has hardened him and distanced him from his emotions.
Q: How old is Pink Pearl then?
A: Pink Pearl was formed as an adult like all gems are, but she has only existed for 5 years.
Q: What is Steven’s “Essence”?
A: It’s the raw DNA material that is extracted from the Diamonds to make gems.
Q: How does Steven’s Essence affect new gems?
A: They are noticeably different than other gems! They usually have thicker eyebrows, hair, and just a more human like in their form compared to a gem of the exact same cut and type. It marks them as Era 3 Gems.
Q: Is there a reference for Steven in this AU’s design?
A:
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2009 era Damian reading
As I've been doing my 2009 era Damian reading, I'm trying to condense the good stuff and bad stuff, and things I believe are relevant for his character. These are in addition to what I assume is obvious (Batman and Robin 2009, the comic where he has a starring role).
Battle for the Cowl: this has how Damian becomes Robin. It's not necessarily good. Daniels really does not understand Damian, especially this early in his writing, but it does have some important context for things going down b/c Damian helps Squire save Tim's life, and we can see Dick viewing training Damian as something he is responsible for.
Secret Origins (2014) #4: This is a much more in character Damian becoming Robin, though fit for a condensed new 52 timeline that leaves some stuff out (like Damian's rocky intro with Bruce).
Batman #688 (Long Shadows part 1): Winick seems one of the early writers who does a Damian as he lines up with later characterization (views himself more as a professional assassin), so I think this one's good.
Batman: streets of Gotham #1-6: damian makes some minor appearances here.
Batgirl #5-7: Always take Damian's guest-starring stuff with a grain of salt, as often times writers just go with "how would an obnoxious 10 year old boy act here" without understanding he's a specific kind of obnoxious 10 year old boy... that said I do like some of his interactions with Steph, and I think it's incredibly important that we see Damian defends his competence based on his training, not on his blood.
Like he'll sometimes justify why he belongs based on his blood (which like... no one acts like they want him around), but he isn't going around saying "I'm better than you b/c I'm batman's son". he was trained intensely since birth (and that's why he should say he's better than you :P)
Batman #692-697: not a ton of Damian in this, and it is Daniel's writing, but he's a little better than he was in Battle for the Cowl. We see Dick training Damian some.
Batman: Streets of Gotham #7, #10-#11: love this plotline for him. Good show of competence and characterization.
Blackest night: batman: More focused on Tim and Dick, and Tomasi sucks at writing Babs, but at there is some Damian content that I remember enjoying.
Red Robin #11-15: as long as you read this one with your brain turned on, it's good for explaining some Tim and Damian stuff. Sadly some fans are like "woooo arrogant 10 year old gets beat up". Nicieza makes some missteps (frames Tim's thinking around Damian as coldly logical, when it is anything but and he is reacting from a place of emotion), but one can ignore those.
Batman #703: shows Damian's character pretty well in a default Batman and Robin adventure, and his relationship (or lackthereof) with Bruce and his dynamic with Dick and Alfred
Teen Titans #88-92 (including Red Robin #20 in a crossover plot): surprised by how well I liked this one. I think it portrays Damian pretty fairly, and we can see that he is trying hard, but hasn't been given a lot of support up until now (or even now, Dick kind of just drops him off with a bunch of older kids who all also have issues and are predisposed to disliking him XD). His dynamic with rose is fun and I think it is notable how quickly he does acquiesce to following Cassie's orders when she's like (at first) the only Teen Titan who is OK with him being there and assures him its not personal when she makes a comment he doesn't like.
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batman and Robin: Has some nice Dick and Damian banter, showcases how they've worked together well
Batgirl #17: more damian and steph interactions.
I will probably add more (either editing this post or in a reblog) as I keep reading.
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Hey, I'm a big wot fan and I've read the big names like asofi and lotr but not a lot more as far as fantasy is concerned and I wanted your recs as far as major big works are concerned...
Ok I’ve been thinking about this for a day or so and I’m not completely satisfied with what I came up with but I got some recommendations. I’m gonna try to mix this with big, more obvious series and also some newer stuff that definitely deserves attention.
The first thing that comes to mind is Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. If you haven’t read any of Brandon Sanderson’s books outside of the WoT books he’s written, then I’d definitely suggest those. The Cosmere consists of multiple series, so there’s a ton to read there. Elantris (standalone), Mistborn Era 1 (trilogy), Mistborn Era 2 (currently a trilogy), Warbreaker (currently a standalone), and The Stormlight Archive (currently three books, fourth coming out this year) are the books in the series. There’s also White Sand which is a comic series (and honestly isn’t very good) and a few novellas and short stories. If you want to get into the Cosmere, start with either Mistborn Era 1 or Warbreaker. Most people would suggest Mistborn Era 1, but I just prefer Warbreaker and it is a standalone so that would be my personal suggestion. Just don’t do what I did and foolishly start with The Stormlight Archive because those books are like a million words a piece and require a lot of trust. I love the books, they’re probably my favorite Brandon Sanderson series, but they are a bad starting place.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin is my next suggestion. The series comes with big ol’ content warnings for like, everything. Like literally everything, but its all very, very intentionally handled. It’s not intense and rough for shock value, its like that to make a point and I think it does so well. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot or inciting action, but basically, it’s a world in which there is magic that is related with geology (as in rocks) and also the world is ending and also the main character needs to find her daughter that her husband kidnapped. Also every book in the trilogy won the Hugo for Best Novel, and this is the only series that has ever done that. The first book in the trilogy is The Fifth Season.
Next recommendation comes with a little disclaimer because I’ve only read the first book so far, but I intend to read the rest and it is sorta a classic in fantasy, I believe, and that’s The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. The first book is the Assassin’s Apprentice and like I said, that was the only one I’ve read in the series, but I liked it and intend to read the others eventually. I believe that Robin Hobb’s other series all take place in the same world too, and there’s quite a few of those, but I’m pretty certain that the Assassin’s Apprentice is the place to start.
And here is another series that I’ve only read the first book for so far but enjoyed a lot. It’s also a much newer series: The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee is a sort of combination of a mafia movie and a martial arts movie, but actually it’s a book, takes place in a fantasy world, and there’s magic. The first book is Jade City and I enjoyed it a lot when I read it, but just haven’t gotten to the sequel yet though I’ve heard great things about it. The third book isn’t out yet and I’m not sure if that is the conclusion of the series but I think it is.
Obviously I can’t make one of these lists without mentioning the Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. So the Witcher Saga is technically “The Witcher Saga plus two short story collections and also another book now.” If you watched the Netflix series and thought, “you know, that was somewhat confusing but I’d like to be much more confused just in general but also have in depth knowledge of seemingly random things,” then this series is for you! Ok, so I really do love the Witcher books and that sounds like I’m being harsh on it, but I just think its important to note that the writing style isn’t really traditional. Point of view jumps can seem weird and random and disjointed at times, but it does have a point to it all. If you’re going to read the Witcher, I’m going to just go ahead and give you the reading order because its unclear where you should start and in what order you should read it all. Start with the short story collections, beginning with The Last Wish, then Sword of Destiny, then you read the Saga, beginning with Blood of Elves and going in order from there. Read Season of Storms after the Saga. Also, the entire series in general deals with fairy tale retellings, but the short stories are MUCH more so.
The last thing I’m going to suggest isn’t a series but a standalone book, though it is big enough that it could be a trilogy of three books rather than one massive book. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon came out last year and was one of my favorite books I read last year. I don’t really know how to describe it, but its told over multiple POVs and multiple cultures and has a genuine slow burn f/f romance that was definitely a highlight of the book for me personally. The author has said that she wants to write more in the world eventually, so there may eventually be a sequel, but at the moment, the book doesn’t require one and is a genuine standalone.
Some fantasy authors who I don’t really have a specific work of theirs to mention but who I think deserve mentions because I’ve liked their books I’ve read: Mary Robinette Kowal, Naomi Novik, Sarah Gailey, Seannan McGuire, Rebecca Roanhorse
Also I just want to note that there are some gaps, as there are some major series I’ve never read that I know have huge followings like Malazan Book of the Fallen and pretty much every YA fantasy series ever. I don’t really want to outright recommend them because I have no experience with them whatsoever, but there’s a ton out there that’s widely loved that I just haven’t read. I could also make a long list of fantasy “classics” I would actively tell people to avoid, but that’s a whooooole other thing...
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tagged by @kabeswaters and @fortisfiliae love u both sm <3 <3
1. on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? it fluctuates but right now -1
2. describe yourself in a hashtag? #anxious
3. if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? JAKE MOTHERFUCKING GYLLENHAAL
4. if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? i dont know what that is hah
5. what’s one thing people don’t know about you? i guess some people don’t know i’m type one diabetic??
6. what’s your wake up ritual? uh phone, animal crossing, fruit loops, weed
7. what’s your go to bed ritual? I watch asmr videos cuz im usually high as fuck and they knock me out lol, or i watch tiktok or pillow talk with my bf nick.
8. what’s your favorite time of day? like 9 pm?
9. your go to for having a good laugh? my boyfriend always makes me laugh no matter how angry or upset i am so i’d talk to him uwu
10. dream country to visit? FRANCe specifically Paris oui oui with my french candian bullshit
11. what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? when they announced 5sos was touring with one direction and i had tickets, never screamed so loud in my LIFE
12. heels or flats/sneakers? sneakers duh
13. vintage or new? vintage babey
14. who do you want to write your obituary? ME from the great beyond, the only other person who knows me well enouhg is nick and i love him but he is very stupid.
15. style icon? uh harry styles, devon lee carlson, halsey, bella hadid, tyler the creator some normal people whos style i LOVE from insta are rebeccaramsdale , kehllie , kikalateefff , yourgirlneens , lilxmg !
16. what are three things you cannot live without? phone, insulin, art, music
17. what’s one ingredient you put in everything? probs vanilla or hotsauce, the only two flavours.
18. what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? my dead brother DJ, kurt cobain andddd ryan dunn from jackass what a weird mix.
19. what’s your biggest fear in life? loosing my senses, loosing control, the fear that i am not actually real and ... oh spiders.
20. window or aisle seat? window
21. what’s your current tv obsession? think its gonna be adventure time again
22. favorite app? instagram or discord so i can talk to my friends uwu
23. secret talent? i can speak french and giberish
24. most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? camping i guess?
25. how would you define yourself in three words? anxious, empathetic, creative
26. favorite piece of clothing you own? my vintage star wars shirt
27. a must have clothing item that everyone should have? blank tees, good quality blank tees!!! white black grey mhmhmh
28. a superpower you would want? i’d wanna be spidergirl
29. what’s inspiring you in life right now? nothing at all :(
30. best piece of advice you’ve received? my grade six teacher telling me that i was very empathetic as i was sitting at the back of the class crying because of the movie we were watching, she told me not everyone is empathetic like i am but its okay to be soft. but not to expect that from everyone else.
31. best advice you’d give your teenage self? teenage me was a mess but not messy enough that i’d change anything. i’d just say, things get better but im currently back in the state teenage me was in so...i’d be lying. maybe that wanting to kill yourself does not count as a personality trait - and start reading comics earlier cuz u really like them.
32. a book everyone should read? i read wack books, everyone on tumblr should read fangirl tho
33. what would you like to be remembered for? something i created
34. how do you define beauty? self expression and individuality
35. what do you love most about your body? wait people love their bodies? not everyone was severly damaged by online diet culture and thigh gap era tumblr? weird ok
36. best way to take a rest/decompress? weed or bath or a movie
37. favorite place to view art? there is an art gallery in saskatchewan that i love, i was suposed to go there this summer before corona took over :(((
38. if your life was a song, what would the title be? either something short like “mellow” or fob style like “im so anxiuos all the time and nothing ever feels real and i dont know what im doing but somehow im doing pretty good while feeling prety bad and laughing through my tears lol.” or i’d steal “teen idle” by marina and the diamonds.
39. if you could master one instrument, what would it be? guitar or piano because im lame at both.
40. if you had a tattoo, where would it be? i want two moths above my knees rn
41 dolphins or koalas? neither
42. what’s an animal that represents you? im more of a pokemon, i think id be jigglypuff
43. best gift you’ve ever received? whenever nick buys me clothes from stussy or maybe infinity on high on vinyl.
44. best gift you’ve given? i bought nick the entire sin city comic series in one giant book.
45. what’s your favorite board game? monopoly
46. what’s your favorite color? yellow
47. least favorite color? that weird pinky purple
48. diamond or pearls? pearls
49. drugstore makeup or designer? colour pop and fenty
50. pilates or yoga? yoga
51. coffee or tea? tea
52. what’s the weirdest word in the english language? pumpernickle is my fav one.
53. dark chocolate or milk chocolate? MILK
54. stairs or elevators? stairs
55. summer or winter? summer, canadian winters are brutal.
56. you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? ur asking someone who has very specific comfort foods so i already do this - cheese bagel toasted with cream cheese and then toasted again to melt cheddar cheese on top. with a diet coke thats very important.
57. a dessert you don’t like? cheesecake
58. a skill you’re working on mastering? im crazy so this is a lot but - writing , drawing and painting, polymer clay, sewing, resin art and pottery.
59. best thing to happen to you today? nothing
60. worst thing to happen to you today? the line at starbucks was too long and i had to get wendys instead, and a few other things i won’t mention.
61. best compliment you’ve ever received? whenever my mom says i remind her of my brother dj, when people say anything nice about my art or writing style. when people ask about my clothes. when my friend jess called me a “known softie” uwu
62. favorite smell? lavender
63. hugs or kisses? hugs
64. if you made a documentary, what would it be about? i’d talk about star wars for hours on end
65. last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? of mice and men made me ball my fucking eyes out
66. lipstick or lipgloss? chapstickk
67. sweet or savory? sweet
68. girl crush? Zendaya
69. how do you know you’re in love? idk ive just always been in love with nick (since i was 15) before i even really knew what love was, i guess if the other person feels like home, you know ur doing something right.
70. a song you can listen to on repeat? nine in the afternoon by p!atd or a match into water by peirce the veil, over my head by fleetwood mac
71. if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? harry styles that mysterious fucker
72. what are you most excited for/about this time in your life? currently not looking forward to anything becase my life is super uncertain right now ha.. maybe the release of the chaos walking movie whenever that decides to happen.
tagging: i assume yall have been tagged in this already but just incase @beskarjedi @woakiees @bluemadcnna @carolinesbookworld @theseuscmander and anyone else who wants to do this consider urself tagged.
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Superman #82 (October 1993)
REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN! The climax of this 19-part storyline, the entire "Death and Return of Superman" saga, and seven years of long-ass plotlines. And it only took this blog a mere six years and six months to get here! PREVIOUSLY: After Superman’s death, five different Supermen popped up to reclaim the mantle, some more convincingly than others. The front-runner, the Cyborg Superman, kinda ruled himself out of the competition when he nuked out a whole city and replaced it with a giant engine. Now the other would-be Supermen converge in that place...
The Last Son of Krypton/Eradicator finally arrives on Engine City, having set off from the Fortress of Solitude two weeks ago. We noted back then that he suddenly looked like an old man, but he's back to Superman's age now. If this storyline had gone on any longer, he would ended up Benjamin Buttoning himself into a grumpy, ultra-violent baby.
Superboy also flies in from Metropolis. It's the fourth time he makes the Metropolis-Coast City trip in a few days (not counting the time he got a ride on a missile), so he's gotta be pretty bored of it by now.
Steel, last seen getting crushed by some giant cogs, emerges from the bowels of Engine City with his armor in tatters but his body intact. Dude’s a tough nut to crack.
Supergirl and the powerless Man in Black continue making their way through Engine City. Supergirl's like "Wanna step out and let those of us with powers handle this one, chief?" but the Man in Black ain't having it. Wow, that's pretty heroic. Maybe... maybe he's actually the real Superman?! Nah, that's crazy.
And Green Lantern Hal Jordan is also there, because this whole issue takes place on top of the ashes of his old city and childhood memories and all. We see the end of his fight with Mongul from Green Lantern #46.
The Cyborg watches as the Super-People invade his fortress from his control room, but he's a glass half full kind of guy, so he's choosing to focus on the fact that he (apparently) gets to kill Superman again.
After the Eradicator joins the party and the Cyborg reveals his true identity, the Man in Black finds himself in the awkward position of having to team up with one of Superman’s worst villains (the one who wanted to turn Earth into Krypton) to fight a good guy driven crazy by space travel (and who once looked like Johnny-5). It's only after the Eradicator goes on a two-page exposition dump about how he brought Superman back to life that the Man in Black goes "alright, guess you're cool".
The Man in Black and the Eradicator follow the Cyborg to the center of Engine City, where a giant chunk of kryptonite powers the entire fortress. The combined powers of the Eradicator's Eradicator-ness and the Man in Black's punching (OK, mostly the first thing) seem to be winning -- but then, in a desperate move, the Cyborg shoots a blast of concentrated kryptonite at the Man in Black. The Eradicator, however, heroically jumps in front of the blast...
...which has the unexpected side effect of restoring the Man in Black's Superman powers, allowing him to dispatch the Cyborg with a swift "broosh". What's a "broosh"? You know, a "broosh":
After Supergirl uses her convenient clothes-shifting powers on the Man in Black's costume, it only takes one second of him in the classic red and blue tights to convince everyone that HOLY CRAP HE'S THE REAL SUPERMAN AND HE'S BACK FROM THE DEAD! (Side note: I like how Green Lantern goes "We'll mop up here! Not like I have anything better to do, what with all my friends being dead and stuff. Haha. I-I’m okay, seriously.")
It's him! It really is him. I knew it all along. Never doubted it.
Character-Watch:
The Eradicator is this issue's real MVP. His whole arc has been about slowly turning him from an emotionless robot into a sentient being through his interactions with people (Lois, Steel, even Loose Cannon and Guy Gardner), and it pays off when he jumps in front of that kryptonite blast yelling "I WON'T LET YOU DIE [AGAIN]!".
Also, when he tells Superman "We have always been linked, you and I", that's true. While their psychic connection influenced Superman negatively for a while (the Day of the Krypton Man saga), it looks like it also worked in the other direction and some of Superman's goodness rubbed off on him. By the way, it might be a stretch but the climactic shot of the kryptonite blast always reminded me of the Day of the Krypton Man's climactic shot, with Superman finally overcoming the Eradicator’s influence with Pa Kent's help.
Anyway, sorry, Superboy and Steel. The Eradicator had the best sacrifice scene in this storyline, hands down. Of course, they eventually brought him back again and turned him into a lapdog for the Cyborg and then Zod, but let's enjoy his dignified retirement while it lasts.
Plotline-Watch:
I'm not kidding when I say that this issue represents the convergence of seven freaking years of storylines. Let's recap (strap on, this is gonna be long):
John Byrne's Man of Steel #1 (1986) introduced Superman's birth matrix, the flying artificial womb that took him from Krypton to Earth. When young Clark sees the matrix for the first time he feels weak, because there's some kryptonite lodged into it. In Superman #1, a few months later, we find out that a crazy scientist stole the matrix and used it to build Metallo, so Superman decides to leave it suspended in orbit to prevent it from being used against him again. Three years later, the distraught mind of a disembodied astronaut called Hank Henshaw jumped into the matrix, and he made himself a tiny little spaceship from its technology, then sped off into deep space. Eventually, he went mad, hooked up with Mongul, and used the DNA information he got from the birth matrix to make himself a half-Kryptonian body. Hence: the Cyborg Superman. (As for that kryptonite rock, it ended up in Lex Luthor's hands... soon to be "hand".)
Also during Byrne's run, Superman briefly visited a "pocket" universe inhabited by a Silver Age-type Superboy, who died by the end of that storyline. Months later, the pocket Earth had turned into a hellhole thanks to three Kryptonian criminals. They too died by the end of that storyline... by Superman's hand. Feeling guilty over killing those killers, Superman exiled himself in space, was captured by Mongul's Warworld, and found an ancient egg-shaped relic created by his ancestors: the Eradicator. Superman brought the Eradicator back to Earth and it built him a nice Fortress of Solitude, but it also took over his mind and turned him into the emotionless Krypton Man -- who became an entity of its own after Superman overcame it. After Superman's death, the Fortress' robots rebooted the Eradicator so he could follow his “preserve Kryptonian life” directive and restore Superman back to life, but he got a little confused and thought HE was Superman. Hence: the Last Son of Krypton.
Another concept introduced by Byrne was the idea that Kryptonian DNA is too complex to be duplicated by Earth scientists, which led to the creation of Bizarro. Byrne's World of Krypton miniseries also established that Kryptonians used clones as spare parts to extend their lifetimes, and the conflict over clone rights literally tore the planet apart. So when Superman learned of a cloning facility near Metropolis called Project Cadmus, he immediately felt uneasy about it. After his death, Cadmus got hold of his body so they could create a replacement, but, again, you can't clone a Kryptonian... so they simply created an approximation of Superman's powers and features using human DNA. Hence: Superboy.
As for Steel, he's just Steel. Hence: Steel. Incidentally, if you’re wondering why his armor has been reduced to just some metal shorts by the end of the issue, here’s the answer. Pretty self-explanatory.
The only major plotline left dangling after this issue (aside from Dr. Stratos, of course) is Lex's own death/return/cloning misadventure, but the Super-Squad will deal with that in a big way pretty soon. Oh, and then there's the mess they left for Green Lantern, but that's another creative team's problem. (SHAMELESS PLUG: Follow my new Green Lantern '94 to '04 blog to see how that mess turned out.)
Believe it or not, there's even MORE stuff to talk about in this issue, so don’t miss the great Don Sparrow's section after the jump:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
In the first place I have to say that this issue is an all-time favourite of mine, probably in my top three of this era of comics we’ve been so dutifully covering. The excitement at my local comic shop for this issue was incredible, and already being the Superman fan that I was, I felt like I was on the ground floor. [Max: I also remember the excitement when I first saw this issue in my cousin’s hands after he showed it to me the day he bought it... then didn’t let me touch it, so I read it years later.]
We start with the cover, and I got the deluxe edition, with the chromium cover. Back when this issue came out, I had a love/hate relationship with Image comics. I wasn’t interested in the dark & gritty characters like Spawn and the like, and generally thought the Image books favoured flash over substance and storytelling. BUT, man, did the colouring and paper they used at Image ever look cool! So I was a bit torn about DC using a “gimmicky” feature like this—it looked amazing, but I also felt it was leaning a little far in the direction of sizzle over steak. But I didn’t mind that much, since this had been such a great story to this point. Aside from the metallic 3D look of the cover, the drawing is great, too. It was the first look at the returned Superman in the full suit, and also with the long hair present. DC must have thought that the long hair was a gamble on some level (even though we’d seen it for months in the actual issues) because they hid it from the covers for so long. [Max: This was also the cover they used in both the Spanish and Mexican editions I have, so that’s what I went with for the top of this post. The “normal” cover looks like a historic oddity to me.]
Inside the issue, we jump in with another splash page—there are a lot of these, and it really calls back Superman #75, as most of the pages have one main image, with a few small panels laid overtop. This one features another interpretation of the Eradicator, with short, non-spiky hair—it’s interesting to see these characters reinterpreted week to week. This opening page also commits the unpardonable sin of demanding that we stop reading the issue until AFTER we read Green Lantern #46. Being a naïve 13 year old when I read this issue, I of course complied with the demands of DC editorial, and read Green Lantern first, not realizing it has a near identical plot (albeit from a different point of view), right down to the “broosh” at the end, very much spoiling what is about to come in Superman #82. I remember being pretty steamed that my first glimpse of a returned Superman didn’t come in a Superman book. While I appreciate the coordination, I do find the caption misleading.
Also similar to Superman #75—it’s very hard for me not to talk about every panel or page, because this whole book is just gorgeous. The badassery from the last issue continues into this one, as Superman with his tough-guy attitude and giant gun is pretty cool. One quibble I have with this team is that when they bury Superman’s eye’s in shadow, it can have a sinister or tired look, which I don’t think is the intention. Some panels it’s more prominent than others, but in one panel on page 6 where it makes Superman look pretty rough, and a lot less handsome. We get more big gun Superman later when he starts taking it to Engine City in general, knowing it is connected to the Cyborg.
The Cyborg taking different shapes is done pretty effectively here, particularly when he forms himself out of what must be a lead-like metal to accuse Superman of a bunch of nutty stuff. The reveal of the Kryptonite heart of engine city is very well done, in part because of Eradicator’s bulging red eyes. It is a bit weird to imagine a lipless robot saying “mmm, hmm” though.
We get another great full-page splash as the Eradicator goes all-out in his effort to defeat the Cyborg. The captions here always confused me though, where it says “(The Eradicator) was built to kill…the other (the rocket that brought Superman to Earth, which the Cyborg used to create his new body) to bear new life. The victor would be obvious.” But to me, it’s not obvious. I would think that in a Superman comic, a vessel of LIFE would be the big winner over ancient weaponry, but I think the caption intends the inverse. I guess it’s saying a gun would beat a baby crib? It’s one of those passages that sounds cool, until you think about it. Or think about it excessively, as I clearly have. [Max: To be fair, a gun WOULD beat a baby crib. It would kick that baby crib’s ass.]
Superman’s haymaker knocking off the Cyborg’s jaw is an incredible visual, and there’s a subtle set-up for the great cape visual call-back that comes later.
The entire sequence of the Eradicator taking the blast of Kryptonite is well done, in particular the panel when we see Superman through the vanishing Eradicator. I’m a bit confused as to just how the Kryptonite suction thing works here—the Kryptonite meteor is shrinking and shrinking, but nothing is attached to it except for that one hose.
Jurgens and Breeding do a great job of showing the physical cost of Green Lantern going toe to toe with Mongul. It also sets up for my all-time favourite Superboy quote, one I think might be seen on this site from time to time in meme form, “Check it out! The Lantern looks so totaled it makes me want to hurl!”. This entire saga has been worth it, to get to that line. Just magnificent. [Max: I think Hal went evil because of that one comment.]
The glimpse of the burnt-out husk of the Eradicator is also incredibly well drawn—and painful looking—but even by the end of this story he seems a lot more recovered.
The scene of the returned-to-full-power Superman decking the Cyborg is a stand-up-and-cheer moment, and I love the detail that Superman is holding the cape for this whole scene. It’s interesting that as the Cyborg starts to get damaged in the fight, we see how little organic material there is. Metal seems to poke through the skin on his face, as if only a thin sheet were laid over the metal. and when Superman punches right through him, there’s really no blood or anything, just a dry, cracked crater. I had thought, up until this issue that the cybernetic parts were beside real skin and bones (as if to replace the damaged parts of Superman’s body from his fight with Doomsday), but this issue seems to posit that he’s all robot, with only a veneer of Kryptonian flesh overtop.
The normally merciful Superman is pretty blood-thirsty here, vibrating his arm fully in the knowledge it might kill Henshaw (who helpfully reminds us, he’s survived before). [Max: That moment kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and I think Jurgens himself felt uneasy with it too. One of the highlights of his recent “Rebirth” run was that Superman deliberately decides to jail Hank instead of killing him to at least give him a chance to be rehabilitated, which would be cool to see happen one day.] I love the little glimpse we get of the restored, and re-costumed Superman before the full reveal, and as a character moment, I love that he would think to show gratitude for the heroes who filled in when Superman was dead.
The next few pages are pure joy, as it’s such a treat to see our Superman soaring around in the sunshine, even with the new Tarzan haircut. It’s such a show of restraint that they didn’t pack a reunion with Lois into this issue, instead allowing a different superteam to tell that story, which very much deserves its own issue. Overall, though, I just remember feeling such a sense of joy, and relief that Superman was back, and back to full power. [Max: SPOILERS: And then some...]
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
I do love this era of comics before swearing (or even censored swearing) was a thing, because they have the weirdest phrases. John Byrne would always have characters saying “blast” instead of “damn” to an absolutely ridiculous degree. In this issue, I don’t know for sure if “crud” is a stand-in for another word, but it does strike me as downright odd for Green Lantern to use it as a noun against Mongul. The concept of “a crud” just amuses me, though I suppose it could be meant in the same vein as “scum” or something.
Is it me, or does Jeb look like Ricardo Montalbon here? [Max: Oh crud, I forgot Jeb was in this issue! Jeb was in this issue, everyone.]
I love they don’t even give the Cyborg a moment to be cool. Just as he’s about to reveal his true identity in a villainous speech he gets clocked by Superboy, in one of my favourite moments with the character (but not my very favourite, as we’ve seen.) I also like the low-level burn that Henshaw assumes that Superman must already know who he is, but Superman’s like, nope.
I do like that this issue goes to great lengths to explain that Superman can’t just keep returning from the dead, even going so far as to say it would never work again. My pet theory is that the Eradicator’s Resurrection Matrix only worked because Pa Kent’s spiritual journey in Adventures of Superman #500 really did happen. [Max: I might be misremembering, but I think the upcoming issue of Action pretty much confirms that.]
I’m glad to see him recovered, but I kinda think Eradicator spoiled the moment a little with his observation about Green Lantern.
[Max: Blast it, Sparrow! You’ve done it again!]
#superman#dan jurgens#brett breeding#eradicator#superboy#coast city#green lantern#hal jordan#mongul#steel#supergirl#hank henshaw#jeb friedman#metal shorts#dc give me baby eradicator you cowards#reign of the supermen
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Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder: The Fifth Republic and Modernity
I was hesitant on deciding to write about a movie that I’ve only seen once, especially since I saw it in theaters and it’s not accessible anywhere else. I’ve been thinking about this movie since I saw it, which was last Wednesday, so not too long ago. But I told myself that if I’m going to write about this, I might as well do it while it's somewhat fresh in my brain. So here it goes: Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder.
When I think of South Korea today, I think of K-Pop, skincare, 5G, plastic surgery culture, and a whole bunch of colorful, glamorous things that Bong Joon-Ho sees through. This is the third Bong Joon-Ho I’ve seen so far, and he constantly reminds us that Korea is not that. Class was everywhere in Snowpiercer. Class was everywhere in Parasite. Can I just note how it's interesting that Snowpiercer’s class structure is visible through a literal horizontal setting (the bullet train) while Parasite is vertical (through the levels of the home). One can argue class is everywhere (period) but Memories of Murder does not emphasize class distinctions the way that the other two does. Although there is something to be said about its historical and political significance. Before I give you my analysis, let me give a brief summary.
In a rural province in 1986, two women were found bound, gagged, raped, and murdered in a field. Chief detective Park is frustrated due to the contamination of evidence, the media, and the severity of the case. Park’s wife tells him about a mentally disabled boy, Kwang-ho, who used to follow one of the victims around before she died. Park and his hot-headed partner, Cho, beat Kwang-ho and secretly record him describing the murder in detail, corresponding to the autopsy’s result. Park’s technique to finding a criminal is by staring at them and looking into their eyes. He thinks that Kwang-ho is the murderer. Seo, a detective from Seoul, comes down to assist Park with the case. He immediately dismisses Kwang-ho as a suspect because his webbed fingers couldn't match the level of sophistication of the other murders. Seo also dismisses the confession as Park and Cho rehearsing the murder with him, so they can close the case quicker. Seo’s more refined detective skills causes him to disagree with Park’s more traditional and laid-back methods. They establish the pattern that the killer only goes after women wearing red on rainy nights. Another officer also realizes that the local radio station gets a request to play a song called “Sad Letter” every rainy night, shortly before the next murder is committed. Park meets with a fortune teller who sells him a gimmick ritual item to use at the scene of the crime. Him and Cho return to one of the many crime scenes where they also find Seo independently investigating. They all hide separately when a man wearing red lingerie pulls out a bra and underwear and begins to masturbate over it. Cho steps on a twig prompting the man to run away. Park, Cho, and Seo chase the man who hides among construction workers. Despite it being unlikely that he is the murder, Park and Cho proceed to torture him.
Seo follows a local schoolgirl’s rumor of a woman who cries on top of the hill near the school. The traumatized woman managed to escape the killer alive but did not see his face, only remembering that he had soft hands. Seo clears the construction worker suspect due to his rough hands. Another night it rains and “Sad Letter” begins to play on the radio. Park and Seo get the station to give them the address of the postcard requesting the song, which brings them to the home of a factory office worker, Hyeon-gyu, with soft hands. Park and Seo listen to Kwang-ho’s confession where they realize that he's speaking as if he witnessed the crime and was describing the scene. They rush to find him at his father’s restaurant where they find Cho drunkenly fighting the patrons who made fun of the police on the television. Kwang-ho runs away and gets hit and killed by a train, before they can question him. They also find semen on a victim and send it to the United States to see if it matches Hyeon-gyu, because Korea doesn't have the forensic technology to test it. The next body is found and Seo realizes it was the schoolgirl who helped him earlier. Frustrated and angry that they haven't found the murderer, he drags Hyeon-gyu to a tunnel getting ready to shoot him. Park stops him carrying the documents from the United States. Seo reads the documents in disbelief, which says that the semen does not match Hyeon-gyu. Park looks him in the eyes but is unsure. He reluctantly lets him go. The movie shifts to 2003 where Park now has a family and has become a rich businessman. Park stops his driver while passing by the field where the murders occurred. Park looks down into a ditch where the first woman was found. He’s interrupted by a schoolgirl who asks him what he's doing to which he responds he’s “just looking.” She says that it's weird because awhile back she saw another man looking down there, and when she asked him why “he said he remembered doing something here, long ago. So he came back to take a look.” He asks her how he looked, to which she simply replies, “ordinary.” Park is visibly shaken by this, to which he turns to the camera and stares.
Ok, so I understand this was by no means a brief summary, but this is a murder mystery, so every moment counts. I don’t even know where to begin. First, I should mention that this is based off of South Korea’s first serial murders, which was unsolved until 2019. I should also say something about the political situation, I left certain things out of my “summary”, mainly the scenes of political unrest which were sprinkled throughout the film. We see scenes where tanks roll into the street, Christian groups protest outside police departments, people casually denouncing the police for their unethical tactics. The more unnerving scenes depict missile sirens going off, where civilians must perform a drill in case of a North Korean attack which includes everyone turning off their lights and hiding in the nearest buildings. Bong doesn’t give much background to the political situation beyond this. Memories of Murdertakes place in 1986, towards the end of the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship. The Fifth Republic of Korea was created after the political instability of the Park Chun-hee dictatorship and was meant to transition Korea into a democracy. Chun orchestrated the coup d’etat that assassinated Park and made him the president, before any elections took place. Under Chun, all political parties were banned besides his own, the Democratic Justice Party, and ruled as a one-party state. Chun continued to squash pro-democracy protests despite nationwide support, until the June Democracy Movement forced Chun to hold elections, which ushered in the democracy of the Sixth Republic in 1988.
This era of repression is represented by the desaturated image of the rural provinces. During the Fifth Republic, the liberalization of the Korean economy expanded the role of major cities like Seoul, while rural areas suffered. Korea became dependent on foreign agriculture and livestock. In the original case, the victims were found in different locations but in the film, Bong places them in the fields. Perhaps the placement of their bodies alludes to the death of the Korean agricultural sector. The film begins in daylight, something we don’t see until the end in 2003. This grim period ends when the film flash forwards to 2003. The absence of Park’s life within the 17-year transformation allegorizes the rapid urbanization which prompted mass migration into major cities. 1988 marked a new era of Korea, not bound by the remnants of authoritarianism but a more liberal, globalized nation.
This urbanization also modernized Korea. Park and Cho’s approach to detective work comes off as backwards, even comical to the audience. We have Cho whose primary method is to beat anyone out of a confession. Park employs numerous techniques like going to a fortune teller, going undercover to bathhouses, and most importantly- looking into the eyes of the suspects. As Tony Montana once said, “the eyes, Chico, they never lie”, a line Park would very much agree with. This contrasts the more scientific Seoul-trained Seo, who trusts that “the documents never lie.” There's much to be said about facts, that Joseph Jonghyun Jeon goes into in his analysis of the movie, but I’m unqualified to summarize. The essential detective story depends on the facts, the desire for truth. Throughout the film, we’re searching for that. As a generation fed on Law and Order, Criminal Minds, CSI, and a whole bunch of crime dramas, we’re well versed with the dos and don'ts of an investigation. While I’m not familiar with Korean crime scene procedures, I’m sure that eating ramen with a suspect, beating them, and literally anything that Park and Cho did, is not ethical. As an audience, I’m sure we all held on to those feelings of hope we received after the pattern was established. Early on we found out that women wearing red were targeted on rainy nights, shortly after “Sad Letter” played on the radio. After that, not much progressed in the investigation. In fact, it was extremely frustrating watching so many women go murdered after that. Although most of us were rooting for the broody Seo to put the investigation on the right path, and find the murderer, he didn’t do much. Yes, his contributions were valuable, but in the end, he did not solve the case. Park and Seo’s relationship represented a dialectical opposition of ideas. Park’s eye contact method couldn’t tell if Hyeon-gyu was the killer, and Seo’s documents were inconclusive. Does Bong think that Korea cannot be exclusively traditional or exclusively modern? That their needs to be a synthesis of the two? I should also note that I am also too unqualified to invoke the Hegelian dialectic.
It almost feels unfair to stop here but I should because I’m impatient and I want to have something posted. Honestly, I could have written so much more. I’d go into police brutality in the Fifth Republic, the violent nature of Korean society, the murder case itself (but let’s be honest, I’m too scared to read into the details at 3 am). I just want to talk about one last scene, the actual last scene. Despite being the scenes of such grisly crimes, towards the end, the field gave me a sense of relief. The warmth of the fields made me feel comfortable, almost nostalgic. Before I forget, Jeon also extensively details the significance of nostalgia and the title, so you should check that out. Back to the fields, they made me comfortable. Have you ever gone to the beach and dipped your body in the water, changed your clothes and gone home? That feeling of wet hair, bits of sand on your body. No matter how great that beach day was, the car ride in that state is an extremely uncomfortable one and all you want is to go home, get in the shower, and wrap up in a blanket and go to sleep. That’s what that last scene did for me, it was me wrapping up in that blanket. But how can you go to sleep? After having a little girl deliver the news that the murderer still lives and remembers his crimes. Park must have spent those 17 years forgetting his failures with the case. Even visiting the crime scene wouldn’t have affected him the way that the universe did when it sent him that girl to taunt him. What really got me was when Park turned to the camera. If you had/have the pleasure of seeing it in theaters like me, Park stares at the audience, which I didn't think much of. Then I remembered that the case was still unsolved in 2003, and there was a chance that the actual murderer was in the audience, and Park was making eye contact with us to see if he was amongst us. And that's what had me fucked up.
Further Reading:
Jeon, Joseph Jonghyun. “Memories of Memories: Historicity, Nostalgia, and Archive in Bong Joon-Ho's ‘Memories of Murder.’” Cinema Journal, vol. 51, no. 1, 2011, pp. 75–95., doi:10.1353/cj.2011.0065.
#memories of murder#bong joon ho#song kang-ho#song kang ho#bong joon-ho#parasite#snowpiercer#kim sang-kyung#kim sang kyung
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REVENGE OF THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST!
Eons ago, when the earth was young, I held the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, and creators like YOU populated my activity page with a legion of giant monsters! Now, years later, in celebration of publishing the first volume of The Atomic Time of Monsters, the contest calls to us once again, and it’s only grown bigger and spikier with age. If you wish to once more ravage the world with atomic titans of your own design, then please, read on after the cut to discover the rules of this thrilling kaiju role call!
Ok, for clarity’s sake I’ll drop the goofy melodramatic tone.
Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters. Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie. That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here. But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!
THE RULES:
1. This time around, you are limited to one entry per person. Last time we produced 60+ kaiju, which was awesome, but this time around I want to narrow the scope a little bit - especially if I end up doing something crazy and end up drawing them all like last time, since my carpal tunnel syndrome afflicted hand just can’t do what it did those years ago. Work hard and make your entry count!
2. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Using the ATOM kaiju file template isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!
3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories.
4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM. I’ll explain this in more detail down below.
5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. What would be the point of having another fire-breathing t.rex monster? The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.
6. The kaiju must be independent of the main plot of ATOM - not “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.
THE REWARDS:
I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.
I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.
The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs). That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS!
THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by August 9th, 2019. You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through. I’m in a lot of places.
THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN)
The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject. In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, the first actual, factual novel in the series was published very recently (and, y’know, is the reason I’m holding this contest), which you can get from amazon in both paperback and/or kindle editions (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1).
However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:
ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist. If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.
Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules. There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:
ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy. In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process). However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.
All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of. Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).
ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.
Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla. There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.
In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use. There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.
Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.
While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.
ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds. You can learn more about retrosaurs here.
Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.
North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.
East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.
Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.
Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric. Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.
Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.
Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life. The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem). Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:
Venusians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/
Martians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/
Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive. Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.
Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi. Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it. So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.
ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to co-exist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them. A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.
Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.
Video of retrosaurs in action.
Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
Finally, here’s the page for the original ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest, which has even more reference material for you to peruse.
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Jennikku goes off about a Sonic the Hedgehog Reboot.
If you follow me at all or have read many of my other rants, you’ll know I love Sonic the Hedgehog. A lot, with all my heart. I met my friends through Sonic and it’s a franchise that’s changed a lot in my life, for better, for worse and everything in-between. It’s the reason I started to draw, to write and to really give creativity a chance.
It’s a series that has been through many twists, turns, up and down and all arounds over the course of it’s long, 28 (as of the time of writing) year lifespan, and has stood the test of time, being heralded either as one of the best video game franchises of all time, or, well, one of the worst out there, becoming more and more dated by each passing day.
But, it didn’t start out that way. Everyone’s told the long, terrible story now about Sonic’s massive rise to the top of 1990s American Iconography and his massive plummet into the depths of Hell, dragging his now-bitter fans down with him following the turn of the century and segwaying into the modern age, so I won’t bog you with the details you already know, but here’s the main point.
Sonic the Hedgehog... kinda sucks.
And that’s because it’s a mess. An astronomically confused, tired, and beaten mess. In the 28 year lifespan of Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s canon has become massively tangled in knots. Inconsistent games, inconsistent comics, inconsistent cartoons, and so on and so forth. Anyone who’s a fan of Sonic comes from a place where they heard about Sonic, be it the games, the cartoons, the comics, and so on, and therefore, have a different mindset about what Sonic the Hedgehog should be, which is the cause for much of the heavy, almost unpleasable climate the fan community gives off.
Really? The only way I see the series being salvageable is to wipe the slate clean and begin... at least somewhat anew, and see how these scatted pieces of broken glass we call the ‘Sonic canon’ can fit together.
This has been tried once, with Sonic Boom, but it didn’t really end well, and I’d like to change that, so let’s have this hypothetical reboot take the same form as Sonic Boom, as a potential ‘new face’ for the entire series, rather than a spinoff continuity. (I feel like this was the original intention of Sonic Boom, but due to the backlash, was revoked.)
Are you comfortable? Let’s go. It’s gonna be a long-ass, tiring, winding post.
(Seriously I spent fucking 3 days just writing this post. For that reason, there may be a few gRaMatTcul eRors here and there, just bear with me, okay? I’m tired and I just wanna heave out this monster of an idea.)
Housecleaning and on wiping the slate clean
Ok, before we actually get into redoing the series, I wanna make this clear, when I say I want to ‘wipe the slate clean’, that’s sort of an exaggeration. I don’t think Sonic needs to be completely rewritten from scratch, and certain elements of the series DO work very well, so it’s more we’re gonna ‘wipe the slate clean, but immediately redraw things back on, except bigger and better than they were before.’
The reason why is, Sonic the Hedgehog has a kind of ‘hoarder complex’ when it comes to his franchise. As I established earlier, the main problem with rebooting Sonic the Hedgehog as compared to another franchise like, say, Ducktales, or Ghostbusters, is that Sonic the Hedgehog has a lot of lore. Too much lore. Think about the crazy amount of lore surrounding Solaris, Mephiles, Dark and Light Gaia, the Wisps, Chaos, and Tikal, Shadow and the Black Arms, Silver, the Sol Dimension and Blaze, Eggman Nega, the Nocturnus Clan, the list goes on and on and on. It’s head-spinning, it’s confusing, and most of all, obtrusive to what’s actually important in the Sonic Canon versus what seems important.
This isn’t helped by the fact that Sonic has never really had a consistent ground to stand on in terms of his world and where he lives because where he lives changes with every game or new thing Sonic is in. So, introducing these new, complicated gods and grand, sprawling history all of a sudden doesn’t give the world Sonic lives in any ground or any real meaning if it’s just going to be ignored later on when Sonic Forces completely rewrites the world map from Unleashed. (This is a problem I have with the Mario and Kirby series too.)
Even if you claim something like the Sonic Archie comics have consistency in their setting, think about how much the comic’s version of Mobius changed over the course of its lifespan after not only being completely rewritten (thanks Ken Penders. I’m sure your horrific 3d render children are proud.) and two crossovers, not to mention all the subtle shifts and changes the comic made from its debut comic to its cancellation.
So, if we’re going to do this, we need to get this straight right now.
A new Sonic reboot will NEED to cover EVERY base of the Sonic continuity. Games, Comics, Cartoons, Merchandising (with the exception of maybe some anniversary stuff), The Whole Echidna- er, Enchilada.
If the problem with Sonic as it is, is that the continuity is messy because it keeps adding new stuff? THEN STOP FUCKING ADDING NEW STUFF!!
NO ONE’S GONNA LIKE THE NEW STUFF ANYWAY!!
PEOPLE FUCKING HATE CHANGE!!
THIS FRANCHISE IS SO FUCKing MiSTReATED!- FUCK!!
Nah, but seriously. If this reboot is gonna work, then it needs to BE a proper reboot. Not a side-series like Sonic Boom, not an ‘alternate dimension’ to dip into for mainline games, not a one-off series of animated shorts, no quills, no pillows. If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna go all in. At least in terms of continuity.
So, you know what we’re gonna name this reboot?
Sonic the Hedgehog
Just, Sonic the Hedgehog. Yep. All in, indeed.
Audience, Tone, and Genre
I feel maybe I should’ve split these into multiple sections, but, they really all go hand-in-hand.
If we’re gonna remake Sonic, we gotta first decide how Sonic should feel, and who he’s going to appeal to. So, let’s consider what we’re working with first, based on the history of who Sonic has appealed to.
The whole point of Sonic’s young, hip, snarky personality was to appeal to the American youth of the 1990s (kids, teenagers, and young adults), the young, hip, snarky and coolest people around. Sonic sought to identify with these kids by being a little bit ‘edgier’ and ‘cooler’ than most other cartoon characters of his era, but still with the capability to be as cute, wholesome and inherently charming as his competition. Like the perfect little blend of the sarcastic wit of Bugs Bunny and the lovable personability of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.
Many Sonic clones of the 1990s like Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, and Zero the [CENSORED] Squirrel tried to piggyback off of Sonic in this manner by trying to play up Sonic’s edgy, snarky appeal, but what they lack is that more wholesome, laid back, simple, round and friendly aspects of his design. It’s why Sonic can look like this:
but also like this
like this
but also like this.
It’s why Sonic works so well as a cartoon character in animated shorts and cartoons, as well as an action character in high octane blood pumping action anime, and one of the reasons why I think his design is so appealing. It’s this, this perfect balance between cool superhero and cuddly, wholesome cartoon character that makes Sonic such the iconic character he is.
So what’s the point of me telling you that?
Well, lots of people disagree on what Sonic the Hedgehog’s tone should be, and what audience Sonic should appeal to. Many argue Sonic is a series strictly meant for children, and therefore shouldn’t take any risks and be cutesy, wholesome and bouncy. Others argue Sonic should market itself to teenagers and young adults by pushing its envelope with it’s material and turning itself into a giant melodrama with three-dimensional characters, intertwining relationships and giant, epic Dragon Ball Z style showdowns with blood, guts and the crunching of noses and teeth.
You know what’s popular right now though and seems to have been for a while? A blend of those exact two things.
It sounds dumb but, think about it. Video games and cartoons have been taking this turn toward being a little bit of the best of both worlds. Steven Universe, Undertale/Deltarune, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, even stuff like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, that sort of thing.
So, I think a new Sonic reboot should be an Action/Adventure-Comedy. It’s a series about long, lengthy quests and the ongoing war between nature and machine, but it’s also about a quick-witted cartoon character having fun picking on an overconfident evil scientist and his lackeys.
And you know what? I think Sonic is and has shown that this is the environment he flourishes in. Think about why Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive work so well, or why OK KO: Let’s Meet Sonic! is so great! It places Sonic and co. in an environment in which they have the opportunity to be funny and cartoony, but also leaves itself open to lead into more strict action sequences or serious, emotional moments, should it feel the need to. It lets the characters be the characters, without being impeded by everything needed to be babyproofed, but also not interrupted by fanfic-tier melodramatics every 2 and a half minutes. And, considering how much any media featuring Sonic relies on its characters to garner appeal, this is important.
Besides that, this is also important for something I think is going to make this reboot go from good to great.
: ✧･ﾟ: U N I F I C A T I O N ! :･ﾟ✧ :
I’ve said this before in my other essay on how I’d reboot Sonic, but I truly feel that bringing together a lot of different elements of Sonic’s history together for this reboot is a top-notch idea for not only bringing the series back together whilst maintaining a wide appeal but also broaden the scope of potential characters, settings, and plot points we can work with, rather than just limiting it to just the classic era, or just the modern era, it also might leave veteran fans wondering just who or what was going to show up in the next game, or next episode!
Why limit ourselves to just a classic-style series or just a modern-style series? Why not mix it up a little?
Let’s take the cute classic stuff and mix it with some of the cool modern stuff!
I mean of course there’s gonna be purists but, hey, if we have a little bit of both we might just start seeing eye to eye!
So, what does that mean for the audience? Well, I think in that sense, Sonic should be able to appeal to, about anyone, really. Adults, Kids, Teenagers, anyone. It’d be like going to see a Marvel Superhero movie in the theaters or watching Spongebob on TV, yeah, it’d be something kids enjoy, but also something young adults can appreciate too. Although if we absolutely have to stick to a demographic, I’d say the ideal targets for a Sonic the Hedgehog reboot are two groups of people specifically.
Older fans of the series who grew up with the Adventure and Classic games, and Younger people who are more familiar with the modern games. As far as drawing new people or embittered old fans in?... Well, we’ll get to that.
Plot synopsis
It may seem like a no-brainer what the plot of Sonic the Hedgehog is, right? Well, of course it is. It’s been the same for over 20 years, and, I think the premise? Is fine.
“Sonic the Hedgehog is the fastest thing alive and a protector of nature who loves adventure. He’s smarmy and mischevious, but with a heart of gold and an unshakable sense of justice with a can-do attitude. His archnemesis, Dr. Eggman, wants to take over his natural, sprawling home and begin building his planet-conquering empire in its place. It’s up to Sonic and his group of friends to defeat Dr. Eggman, and restore peace to the world, and the green back to the hills.”
This? Right here? This is Sonic the Hedgehog. No matter who you ask, from any branch of the franchises thousand-foot tall family tree, this is Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a couple of doodads and twists here and there depending on the specific game, but that’s really honestly it when you break it all down, that’s the plot of almost every Sonic game. But this can easily get lost and bogged down between all of the God-summoning and all that shit that other Sonic media does.
So, let’s keep the focus on this, and this alone. Just the ongoing misadventures, setbacks, leaps forward, threats and triumphs between Sonic and Co. and the forces of evil.
...(But let’s add the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, I don’t think I can stand having a Sonic continuity without them and they make for good plot fodder, plus, I’ll be damned if I’m not seeing Super Sonic by the time a series finale or end-of-game hits.)
Setting + Background Lore
So, to set a location, let’s dumb down where Sonic actually lives. (Figuratively anyway, Sonic has no true home, just places he likes to be at any one time.)
In the Genesis days, Sonic lived on a tiny island called South Island, and the game’s settings often took place on South Island or on it’s neighboring islands Westside and Angel Island, and, given how important these old zones, like Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, are to the current Sonic Canon, I propose that maybe the setting for this potential reboot takes place on said islands, with one island for each of the cardinal directions on a compass, but also some of the other islands that are included in the Sonic series (as well as some adjusted ones!)
And, as a reference to the days of yore, we could even call it
The Mobius Archipelago
Each of these islands would have their own unique areas (referred to as ‘Zones’ for both nostalgia and convenience’s sake) based on the different levels from Sonic games. I’m unsure of the exact geography of these islands in question, but, you get the idea if you’re at all familiar with the canon, South Island has all the zones from Sonic 1 (16 and 8 Bit), Sonic Chaos and Sonic 2 (8-bit), Westside Island has all the zones from Sonic 2 and a couple from Sonic Mania, Angel Island has all the Zones from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, North Island is essentially a fusion of all the different Eggman Zones (Crystal Egg, Sleeping Egg, Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Eggmanland, Robotropolis, Robotnik Winter, the zones from SegaSonic the Hedgehog, etc.), Flicky’s Island has all of the zones from Sonic 3D Blast, Cocoa Island has all the zones from Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventure, Mirage Island has all the zones from Sonic 4 and also Never Lake, and Little Planet (and hence all the zones from Sonic CD) you get the idea.
I’m unsure what exactly Eastside Island would have on it, but I figured that Sonic games have so many zones and levels across so many games, surely something would find a nice home on that island, perhaps some of the zones from Sonic Mania, Sonic Blast, maybe even the Adventure games, who knows? But, inevitably, space is going to run out on those other islands and we’ll likely have zones or locations that’ll be good for the series to have.
And then, we also have a mainland sprinkled with City. This is where your Adventure/Modern style cities are, Station Square, City Escape, that sort of thing.
It may not seem like much, considering some Sonic games have settings that span entire planets, but when you think about how many zones are crammed into a few little islands in the genesis titles alone, it’s hardly a limited setting.
The natives of this island chain would be Mobians and Mobini. Mobians are your typical Sonic characters, your Sonics, your Tailses, your Knuckleses, and so on and so forth. They’re the more humanoid animals. Mobini, on the other hand would be all of the smaller animals, the kind that Sonic frees from badniks or are just knockin about doing little woodland creature things. For more information on Mobini, I’ve included a little blip about them in the ‘Side Protagonists’ part of this little shanty ‘pitch guide’.
Humans would live on the mainland, although some researchers and scientists would visit the Archipelago every so often because of it’s mysterious ‘new frontier’ kind of appeal, even if Mobians find their research a little weird.
Generally, Humans also keep to the mainland, and Mobians keep to their islands, but, make no mistake, Mobians and Humans don’t hate each other. Some Mobians and Mobini have taken to the urban lifestyle, whereas some humans have taken to the natural wonder of the Archipelago, starting environmentally friendly cities and towns in the sleepy groves and corners of this untamed wilderness.
This Archipelago would be the point of focus for our Main Characters because, well, it’s their native home, and it’d draw our Main Villains because this island is also home to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, and their Master Emerald.
The Chaos Emeralds are the main MacGuffins of the Sonic series, and for good reason! Gathering all seven of these things grants their holder infinite access to chaos energy, a kind of force that will turn their thoughts into power, whether positive or negative. While most Mobians would prefer to leave the Chaos Emeralds alone, due to them causing, well, chaos, villains seek these gems out on purpose so that they can easier accomplish their goals. However, if a hero were to gather all seven chaos emeralds, and had enough purity, desire for good, and strength in their heart, the emeralds will grant them immense power, too.
Upon a vast amount of energy being used however, the Emeralds will scatter across the Archipelago, waiting for their next holders to come, and initiate chaos once more.
And then, there’s the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald is very similar to the Chaos Emeralds, and contains tenfold the amount of energy of a full set of Chaos Emeralds, but also acts as an on/off switch for the Chaos Emeralds. The Master Emerald can completely drain the Chaos Emeralds of their power, or multiply their power exponentially if one knows how to control it, making the Master Emerald incredibly valuable too. However, villains usually tend to opt for the Chaos Emeralds instead, not only because legends of the Master Emerald are believed to be false, or even if it is real, no one knows how to control it, but the Master Emerald is also said to have a guardian. A very, very angry guardian.
There’s also the lesser-known Time Stones.
The Time Stones reside on Little Planet, an anomalous celestial body that appears only once every year over Never Lake on Mirage Island. These stones seemed to have formed in a similar fashion to the Chaos Emeralds, but rather than bending SPACE to the will of their holders, the Time Stones will instead, bend Time. The Time Stones, for this reason, are even more dangerous than the Chaos Emeralds and are responsible for many of the temporal anomalies within the Archipelago. Due to their danger, the Time Stones see much more infrequent use than the Chaos Emeralds, and keeping them on Little Planet as opposed to bringing them to the surface of the Earth is much safer, as the Time Stones will only seemingly affect the time stream of Little Planet and not the Earth.
The Time Stones won’t matter until later in the series when Sonic and Co. start tampering with time, and for a while, the focus will remain on the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald.
But enough about where Sonic lives, let’s look at him and the rest of our colorful main cast, shall we?
Main Protagonists
Hooh, boy I am not gonna make many friends with this decision, am I?
This is kinda where my reboot starts to get a lot little tiny bit more personal, but, I have reasoning behind picking who I pick. The characters I’d pick to be the main protagonists, as in the characters that the viewers of the cartoon series, readers of the comic, or players of the games are going to be:
A) Playing as
B) Rooting for
C) Following throughout most of the adventures.
are as follows:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Miles “Tails” Prower
Knuckles the Echidna
Amy Rose
Mighty the Armadillo
Ray the Flying Squirrel
The first two seem obvious enough, Sonic and Tails are the two spotlight protagonists of most Sonic games and are the two chief playable characters in most games of the Genesis Era. Knuckles should come as no surprise either for the same reason, although I’ll touch on Knuckles later when I assess the protagonists on an individual level.
I chose Amy as one of the leads because, well, Amy frankly hasn’t seen that much time in the sun as a true character, and I feel like that’s a shame given her longevity in the series, being with us ever since CD. Her most complex appearance was in Sonic Adventure 1 and even then, she’s kinda reduced to the same traits as her white-bread, palid, boring, Genesis counterpart. While I would like to have another female character so Amy isn’t a ‘token chick’, I don’t really want to shake up the formula too much.
Mighty and Ray are a little bit different. With the release of Sonic Mania Plus though, I feel that Mighty and Ray are more relevant now than they ever were, and considering their placement as main characters in Mania Plus, I think that we could really benefit from their addition to the main lineup of Sonic’s friends! Sure, Mighty and Ray don’t have much personality, but maybe this is where we can change that and give these lost stars a chance to sparkle as main characters after spending so long in the shadows of the past!
However, I do wanna state, that I understand if some people feel Mighty and Ray are irrelevant. I get that, really, I do. It’s one of the things in this projected reboot that I feel is much more personally appealing to me than it is ‘what I think is best for the Sonic franchise’. Put plain and simple, Mighty and Ray are just... not as popular as other Sonic characters. And, adding these two to the roster of main characters means that the main character count skyrockets from an easily manageable 4 to 6, which can seem like a bit much to some people I’ll agree, and means that they’ll likely see more screentime than other popular protagonist characters like Cream, Silver or even Blaze. But, at the same time, I also feel that if they’re popular enough to be included in Sonic Mania Plus, then there at least is some interest in the fan community of them being relevant, regular characters again. And, what better niche for them to fit into than being two of Sonic’s close friends again while going on adventures with him regularly?
(Side note, I also felt like including Sticks as a main character, and I may come back to that idea later if I end up making any content for this reboot, but as it stands I felt 7 main characters were just a bit too much, although it would’ve been cool to have a character for each Chaos Emerald, and I think there are a lot of real, genuine comedic possibilities, as well as some unique action choreography from her.)
I also don’t think Sonic’s design or the design of his friends need to be changed around too terribly much for a reboot? (Although there are some characters I think could benefit from a rework, but Sonic and MOST of the main characters are okay imo) There’s a lot of contention on Sonic’s design in any sense but, personally? I think Sonic’s designs can actually be pretty well unified, all things considered. I think Sonic could benefit from a few design ADJUSTMENTS, but maybe not a full-scale redesign like Sonic Boom.
For instance, these early concepts for Dreamcast Sonic are an excellent starting place, as I feel they capture the spirit of all three versions of Sonic pretty well all things considered, save for their quills being a little long. the proportions on them are a little off, however, with a couple of adjustments, I think this could actually be a really good idea.
Nendoroid Sonic is also pretty close to what I think a unified Sonic design could look like, if someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick an ideal new design for Sonic, it’d probably be very close to this.
(Credit to JaysonJeanChannel on DA for this render of Nendoroid Sonic.)
Or, even moving back a little bit, “Toei Sonic“, although kind of overrated in my opinion, is a really nice compromise between the cutesy, cartoony nature of the original versions of Sonic, while still updating Sonic to be more obviously sleek, sharp and spring-loaded for his modern audiences, and is full of personality. That’s not to say I think Toei Sonic should be the new face of Sonic the Hedgehog for years to come, but it’d be a great starting point to work from, given that Toei is a version of Sonic suited for intense, rubberhosy, slippery animations.
In the end, the only thing that truly matters is that Sonic looks like Sonic, and not like a weird little blue goblin if the backlash on the first pass of the Sonic Movie is any indication? We shouldn’t try to fix what isn’t broken, I just think that maybe trying out a hybrid between classic and modern Sonic to see how people feel about it might be a nice compromise between those who prefer Classic Sonic vs. those who prefer Modern or Adventure Sonic, again, unification, the best of both worlds.
That being said, let’s have a look-see into each character individually, shall we? For this, I’ll give a name, my projected voice actor for them, and a little blurb about their personality, as well as a short list of their abilities.
I’ll also try to justify my reasons for some stuff that people may consider odd after all of the character bios.
Sonic the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz/James Arnold Taylor
Sonic is heroic, ambitious, and a complete adrenaline junkie. He'll take on any challenge that's given to him in the history of forever, even if absolutely knows it's impossible or he could get hurt trying to do it or he's absolutely not skilled enough at what he's doing to do it. Hence, Sonic is extremely competitive and gets easily absorbed in things he does, even around friends. Sonic tends to not look before he leaps as he's able to get himself out of situations so easily, preferring to live on his feet without thinking too hard about anything, although he's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination and will slow down and strategize if he absolutely needs to, and will always be willing to slow down for someone in need. Sonic is cocky, snarky, and believes a little too much in himself, he has an ego the size of the sun and will do anything he has to protect his image, especially how he views himself. Sonic also has an incredible amount of attitude and makes fun of people he doesn't like or thinks deserve it with insulting nicknames or cruel jokes, often being sarcastic and witty even at the worst of times to be. Although Sonic tries as hard as he can to keep his cool a lot of the time and prefers to live without consequences or regrets on his mind, when he's angry, sometimes he can lash out at people and can become downright completely rude when upset. Sonic is also something of a juvenile delinquent, often breaking rules just because he can or he thinks it's fun or funny, which often gets him into trouble. Sonic EXTREMELY Dislikes being called 'slow' or things being faster than he is (often wanting to prove his mettle against whatever is faster than him even if it hurts him), and has even less patience for slowing down unless he absolutely has to. He hates to wait and hates to be kept waiting, oftentimes getting bored and leaving in mere seconds if a situation doesn't matter that much to him, although he's known to show much, much more patience when people are hurt, or upset, and has an affinity for relaxing for long periods of time with friends after lengthy expeditions and adventures. Sonic hates to see innocent people cry or have their feelings hurt and will often get extremely upset at the cause depending on the person/situation, and believes that any situation he can tend to is important (as he often can do things so quickly it's often no trouble for him.)
Abilities:
Insta-Shield (Allows Sonic to deflect incoming projectiles with precise timing. This also extends Sonic’s hitbox a bit so it can inflict damage, and gives him invincibility frames!)
Wall Jump (Sonic can wall jump, but they need to be timed properly, as when Sonic lands on a wall, he’ll begin to slide, sliding down a wall for too long will cause Sonic to slip and eventually fall.)
Super Spin Dash (Sonic can rev his spin dash up much faster and much more efficiently than other characters, Sonic’s spin dash also has higher maximum propulsion, and will break walls much quicker.)
Super Peel Out
Light Dash (Using the light dash on a trail of rings will allow Sonic to pick up vast amounts of speed instantly by traveling along a trail of rings, being slingshotted out of the trail at an intense speed, the longer the trail of rings is, the faster he’ll be when he comes out of the trail, but also the more vulnerable he’ll be when he’s flung out of the trail. Sonic can also easily reclaim his fallen rings by light dashing, but there’s no guarantee you won’t go flying into the hazard you just tried to avoid when you do.)
Can use the abilities of elemental shields
Miles "Tails" Prower:
Voice Actor: Collen Villard
Tails is Sonic's closest friend. Tails is very intelligent and is something of an amateur technician, roboticist and mechanic, although he specializes in work with aircrafts, small-scale robotics, and computer systems. Frequently he prefers a much slower, methodical approach to problems as opposed to rushing into everything headfirst like Sonic does. Often relies on his intuition over instinct. Tails feels he and Sonic hold a kind of 'mutual responsibility' over each other to keep each other safe, hence Tails keeps Sonic out of trouble or from doing things that are REALLY REALLY stupid, but most of the time, Tails likes to indulge in Sonic's antics with him and even enjoys being kind of silly or being a rebel with him. Tails really looks up to Sonic and wants to have the same kind of respect, cool and wit that he does, however, in doing this, because of his low self-esteem, Tails will often ignore a lot of his more positive traits and attempt to mimic Sonic instead in an effort to seem 'cool', which can really make him do some out-of-place or seemingly strange things at times when he doesn't mean it because he can be a little shy to be himself. Tails is a firmly humble inventor and often attributes his successes to the support of others more often than his own work, and he will not ever invent anything for the purpose of competing with someone or for the sake of jealousy, believing that his best work comes from his heart.
Abilities:
Flying (This would be nerfed significantly from Sonic Mania and S3&K so Tails couldn’t just fly over everything. Tails’ gameplay should encourage exploration in more ways than just one.)
Spin Dash
Tinkering (Allows Tails to reverse conveyor belts, turn off sawblades, and do other shit to help him get through mechanical levels.)
Ring Bomb (Short range projectile at the cost of rings, explodes in a small radius)
Remote Robot (Allows Tails to explore places he can’t otherwise get to at the cost of 1 ring per second)
Knuckles the Echidna:
Voice Actor: Dan Green
The key word to Knuckles is STRESS. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, and boy does he take his job seriously, being the very last living Mobian Echidna, and being very in-tune with his family and extended tribe's history. He has an inherent connection with the Master Emerald that allows him to sense it's location, wherever it might be, if this feeling of his is tampered with only slightly, it sends Knuckles into an incredible, panicked rage that can only be quelled by returning the gem to where he left it, or by retrieving the gemstone from whoever stole or moved it. He will only leave the emerald alone for long periods of time once he is one-hundred percent confident no one will touch it or move it (and even then he oftentimes gets worried about it anyway) and hence, interacts with Team Sonic on a more infrequent basis because of this (although he still has plenty of moments dedicated to him.) However, when not guarding the Emerald and forced to loosen up and relax, one can find that Knuckles is rather stoic and full of quote en quote 'sage-advice' (or rather stuff that seems and can be profound but can also be kind of insane ramblings from someone who spends too much time alone with some rock.) He often doesn't understand Sonic's more urban lifestyle, preferring his more traditional, simple 'off the fat of the land' kind of life, but he's surprisingly receptive to new things (unless said new thing gets the emerald stolen of course.) Knuckles is also incredibly suspicious and paranoid of people, even believing people he's close to having the capability of turning on him, and because of this, he's incredibly gullible when it comes to people 'changing' or 'turning evil' or 'wanting to take the Master Emerald', although he's usually smart enough to not fall for the same trick twice... or at least, not for a while after it happens once. Because of his ability to be tricked so easily, and because tricking him often leads to bad things, Knuckles' temper and patience are very short, and very small things easily can make him very upset. Knuckles actually has a weakness for romance, being such a lonely soul, he often gets shy and acts noticeably different (read: Happier) around people that can charm him, but often won't admit it.
Abilities:
Gliding
Climbing
Spin Dash
Burrowing (works sort of like the burrow mechanic from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, except Knuckles can remain and move underground for a bit to be invincible, although this ability is very limited and cannot be done on metal or synthetic flooring.)
Melee Attacks (Knuckles can punch things in a short range, nuff said.)
Amy Rose:
Voice Actor: Kristen Schaal
Amy is positive, bubbly, loud and honestly kind of a silly airhead sometimes. Although at first, it seems there's very little to her, there's actually a lot more to her than her outward appearance would suggest. Amy tends to not judge people by their looks or by their behaviors, and is very open-minded and emotional, often getting choked up over things she really doesn't need to. Amy is also pretty selfless, willing to help people without any benefit to herself or any reason besides being a good person, although that's not to say she just lets people walk all over her. Amy is also something of a social butterfly, having connections with about everyone anyone else even remotely knows, and can easily tell you all about them and will want you to meet them upon even the mention of their name. Her inherent energy makes her a lot to deal with at once, even people like Sonic, Tails, and Mighty can get tired of her very quickly, even if it's very clear that she means well. She also makes for a great therapist and is willing to help anyone with problems they might be having, even if they push her away at first. However, Amy isn't all the girly girl she seems sometimes and has kind of a violent edge, anyone who pushes her around or says anything bad about her friends is gonna get walloped with her hammer, and believe me, you don't ever quite forget a feeling like being Piko'd by Amy Rose. On this note, Amy also kinda... doesn't know her own strength, and can seem stronger than Knuckles, or even Mighty at times because she just absolutely does not know her limits, expect lots of spine-crushing hugs.
Abilities:
Triple Jump (Amy can jump three times in succession, however, each jump significantly degrades in height boost. Her normal jump will go the highest and her third jump will go the lowest. Because of this ability, Amy also does not spin when she jumps, meaning she can’t defeat Badniks or damage enemies by jumping on them, she won’t take damage from bouncing on them, it just won’t destroy them.)
Hammer Smash (A mid-range melee attack that will destroy most enemies instantly.)
Hammer Spin (Both an Aerial attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin jump and a dash attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin dash.)
Peel Out (Functions similarly to the peel out in Sonic Advance or Sonic 2: Pink Edition, replaces the Spin Dash.)
Mighty the Armadillo:
Voice Actor: Beck Bennett/Travis Willingham
Mighty is one of Sonic's oldest friends and is his foil in a lot of ways. He prefers to take his time with a lot of things and doesn't really mind going slow. Mighty is something of a 'meathead', he's naive, and kinda absentminded at times, even if he doesn't mean to be. Mighty is very strong and takes incredible pride in his abilities much like Sonic. He adores his own strength and quote en quote 'manliness' and will do anything to keep his ego inflated and his muscles bigger than everyone else's' (as opposed to Knuckles who views his strength as a humble reward for his years of training). Despite this, he has a very brotherly (read: dudebro) sense of personality though and likes to call people 'bro' and 'sis', and has a habit of saying 'not cool' when things don't go right or when people wrong him. Most of the time, Mighty's slow and naive ways can make him easily influenced into believing things (like conspiracies and the idea protein powder actually does things), and he's not afraid to speak his mind, often coming off as insensitive (which is how he got kicked out of Team Chaotix), when really, he just doesn't happen to know any better, although most of the time he really does mean well. Mighty also really likes to hear himself talk, oftentimes telling long-winded stories or going on long-winded rants or explanations. He tends to butt heads with Sonic and Knuckles, who get annoyed sometimes by his easygoing, borderline dim-witted nature, oftentimes reminding him of obvious things that are happening/have happened. However, Mighty greatly cares for his friends, and the one thing he absolutely will never bend on is he will not ever hurt someone who didn't do him wrong, and despite his naivety, Mighty's incredible sense of justice always triumphs over his unassuming nature. He's also Ray's best friend and will defend Ray over any other person.
Abilities:
Natural Armor (Allows Mighty to take one free hit from spikes, and defeat spiked enemies without being harmed. If a projectile hits Mighty while he’s spinning or jumping, the projectile will bounce off of his armor. This is only while Mighty is spinning, attacks from the back or while Mighty is running will still land.)
Hammer Drop (A ‘stomp’ attack that allows Mighty to crush most Badniks instantly, and will also instantly crush breakable objects and solid blocks much faster than other characters.)
Spin Dash
Mighty Arm (If Mighty presses an action button near an enemy, monitor or breakable item, Mighty will pick it up. While picking something up, Mighty will move slower and his jump will be downgraded, but he can throw the item to deal heavy damage to whatever it hits! And, picking up certain enemies or items may just come with some surprises!)
Super Wall Jump (Mighty can wall-jump much like Sonic, but upon sticking to the wall, Mighty will hang there, and will only slide down at the player’s discretion.)
Ray the Flying Squirrel:
Voice Actor: Debi Derryberry
Ray is neat, quiet, shy, easily disturbed and has a bit of a stutter to his voice. Ray tends to be sort of asocial compared to other members of Team Sonic and prefers not to get in the way if he thinks he's being a bother. However, despite this, Ray is much smarter than he might seem and has a level of resourcefulness to a point that even trumps Tails (who is much more intelligent) at times. Despite being so shy and cowardly, when he gets the chance, Ray is more than willing to do whatever it takes for the greater good, even if he's afraid to do so. Mighty is his best friend, and he gets obsessively worried about Mighty when he's not around, often worrying that he's wandered off or might have been hurt, kidnapped, etc. this often leads to Ray trying to find his friend or panicking that he's 'gone missing', even if Mighty was right under his nose the whole time, ironic, given his intuition and incredibly eagle-eyed nature. Much like Mighty as well, Ray can also be a little bit naive, although usually less so than Mighty himself.
Abilities:
Soaring (Ray will glide and can sweep upwards to gain height at a cost of speed, but also dip downwards to gain speed at a cost of height.)
Lite-Climbing (Ray can climb, and he can climb much faster than Knuckles, but players will need to position themselves carefully, as Ray can’t climb forever, and will eventually slip and fall, the more speed Ray has when Ray collides with the wall, the faster and longer he can climb it.)
Scout-Sense (Ray is able to detect hidden items nearby like Giant Rings, 1up Monitors, and power-ups, once Ray moves close enough to an item, an exclamation point will appear above his head, and the item he notices will be outlined in yellow.)
Dismantle (With similar timing to Sonic’s insta-shield, Ray can choose to land on a badnik instead of destroying it (even if he lands on something like a Shellcracker’s claw or Bubbles when spiked out), and he will begin to unscrew the badnik until it breaks. This rewards Ray with rings or more hidden items, and can make tricky badniks like Asteron and Shellcracker more bearable to deal with! This also works on bosses, except dismantling a boss will only cause a hit of damage to the boss, although Ray can stay latched on to deal multiple hits of damage if he isn’t knocked off!)
Hookay, if you’re not winded by all those character bios, let me try to explain some of my reasoning. I won’t be doing this with later characters because this post is already the size of a fucking dump truck, but, here we go anyway.
Yes. I chose Ben Schwartz over Roger Craig Smith and Jason Griffith for Sonic. No. I don’t hate Jason Griffith or Roger Craig Smith’s voices for Sonic. Yes, I realize Ben is going to play Sonic in the Movie. I know. But, you know what? I think Ben is the perfect person to play Sonic, he’s able to inflect a real smarmy teenager vibe and I DO like that a LOT. But Ben can also play a deeper or moodier teenager too, and I feel like that’s important for Sonic’s character just as much. Jason Griffith and Roger Craig Smith make a 15-year-old sound like he’s 24. Moving on.
I think Sonic needs to not be such a prep sometimes like he is in Colors, Generations, and Forces. Like, I get that Sonic is all about doing the right thing, but, Sonic is also a smarty-pants delinquent who disrespects authority because he can. There’s this great video on the design analysis of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 that shows just how much of a jerk Sonic is toward people he doesn’t care for, and how he feels about obeying rules and regulations. I feel being an asshole toward people he doesn’t like, is part of Sonic’s character, it’s just we need to make him an asshole in the right direction. Sonic can be a Bugs Bunny if we let him, it’s just that it shouldn’t be completely overblown... otherwise, we get STC Sonic.
Tails needs to do more things, and not sit on the sidelines like he does in Unleashed, Colors, and Forces. He does things in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Boom, hence this version of Tails is based more on those versions OF Tails. I don’t hate Unleashed and Colors Tails, but I feel the objectively superior version of Tails comes more from Boom (who I also feel captures all of the good things about Modern Tails ANYWAY) and Adventure (which is Tails at his most resourceful, intelligent and helpful.)
Knuckles needs to be not stupid. We can make other characters stupid, but Knuckles is not stupid, Mania made Knuckles stupid and I hate that because it’s never been who Knuckles is. Sure, he’s a bit of a dense knucklehead, but he’s not dumb, just dense, which is my problem with Boom Knuckles. There’s more to his reasons for why he does things the way he does than he doesn’t know better. He’s stubborn, he’s prone to anger, he’s traditional and very much centered on the past he never had, he worries, he panics. I don’t think Boom Knuckles is a bad character, I just think making KNUCKLES the character to get this personality was kind of a bad idea.
Amy just needs a better-developed personality. Seriously, she’s, already kinda set in stone in terms of who she is, it just needs to be expanded upon. But, Amy kinda already has the groundwork laid out for her with Boom and Modern, it’s just it needs to be molded a little bit.
Mighty comes from the classic era, and he, therefore, has no real, defining personality traits besides being a wall-jumping armadillo. I think Mighty could easily inherit Boom Knux’s personality, (as I feel a character named ‘Mighty’ would have kind of a strongman, meathead personality) but maybe changed up a bit. Instead of being just, dumb, I think Mighty being more oblivious than just stupid is better, plus, at any one time, most of the characters in-game or onscreen are able to deduce what’s going on instantly, having Mighty be a contrast to that is interesting. I also think a slow, easygoing lifestyle is kinda befitting to the Mighty we’ve seen recently, given that he doesn’t seem to emote all that much when Ray finally finds him after he’s been missing for, well, a good while, and doesn’t seem to know his own strength all the time. The only other information I know about Mighty is that he doesn’t like to fight all that much and he’s similar to Sonic, so I tried to include aspects of Sonic in his personality, but also make him kind where he can be.
If Ray’s SegaSonic sprites are anything to go by, Ray just might be a little bit of a scaredy-cat. And, I think this would make for an interesting dynamic between Ray and the rest of the team, he’d make a nice Luigi to everyone’s Mario, a character who is afraid, but willing to set aside his fears for the greater good and even for himself. He’d also be #relatable to the stressed-out teenage and young adult audience he’d be appealing to.
Side Protagonists
Here are my choices for side-protagonists in this reboot. These are ‘friendly characters’, characters that the main 6 characters regularly interact with, but are just not focused on as much. These characters would probably not be playable (except for Silver and Blaze MAYBE.)
The Mobini
Espio the Chameleon
Charmy Bee
Vector the Crocodile
Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao)
Big the Cat (and Froggy)
Silver the Hedgehog
Blaze the Cat
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
wHerE’s TeaM DaRK?!
Just, chill out..., okay? I’ll get to Team Dark in a minute.
I’d also like to clarify if this became a series, Silver and Blaze are probably not going to become relevant characters until much LATER in? I feel like Silver and Blaze should be saved for a very specific time in the reboot’s continuity and I’ll explain that later when we get into how I’d set this series’s continuity up, but there’s a very specific reason why I want to save Silver and Blaze for when the time is right, not because I hate Silver and Blaze, but because I think it’d make the most sense.
I also feel like the Chaotix should appear a lot more and play more of an active role in this new hypothetical reboot than they do in most modern Sonic games... and let’s make them a team of vigilantes instead of detectives. A team of vigilantes that uses TEAMWORK!... And combi-rings!
...Oh and while we’re here, let’s make Cheese a Hero Chao, mkay?
But enough talk about general things! Let’s dive into each of them individually!
The Mobini:
Voice Actor: Various, it’s likely mobini won’t need voices so much as varying sound effects.
The Mobini are the local, native, feral fauna of the world of this new Sonic reboot, all your normal birds, insects, lizards, fish, mammals, et cetera are all Mobini. Mobini, are mysterious creatures, as they harbor an inherent connection to the Chaos Emeralds, and are believed to contain small fractions of the Emeralds’ infinite energy. The Mobini are what first drew Dr. Eggman to the Archipelago in which South Island resides, as with this small portion of infinite energy within them, they can be used as organic batteries to power machines indefinitely!... Although this makes them very unhappy. Contrary to what you may think, Mobini are actually sentient, and remember friendly faces... and unfriendly ones too, so be kind! If you’re ever in trouble or lost in the sprawling forests of the Mobius Archipelago, Mobini may just be able to help you out. The most curious kind of Mobini are Flickies, small little birds native to Flicky’s Island and South Island (although they’ve seemed to branch out more recently), who are said to have an even closer connection to the Emeralds, and can even hold a super form! The phenomenon of Super Flickies is incredibly rare, but when it happens, Super Flickies will be more than willing to lend their power to someone who needs it.
Chao are a special type of genetically unstable Mobini that have no ‘Earthly’ counterpart. From the time a Chao is born to the time they pass away, a Chao will gain the traits of its parent, it’s friends, and or it’s caregiver. This makes Chao ideal pets, as their personality will adapt to suit their owner, this makes Chao not only incredibly diverse but surprisingly intelligent. Just be kind to Chao... you don’t want to know what kind of horror being unkind to these little creatures can lead to.
Espio the Chameleon:
Voice Actor: Phil LaMarr
The de-facto leader of the Chaotix, and the most responsible of the team, Espio is a lot quieter than most of the main cast, and much prefers the sound of a rushing, serene stream over loud, punchy rock music. With a powerful, free-flowing fighting style inspired by martial arts, Espio is an honorable fighter, believing only in fighting fair and straight and without exploiting an opponent’s extreme weaknesses. While he tends to be sort of reclusive and becomes easily annoyed by the antics of the Chaotix and Team Sonic, he’s a lot more unshakable than he looks, and actually kind of likes the excitement from time to time. He also has a long, sticky tongue which he happens to be embarrassed by, but sees more use as a tool than he’d like to admit. Espio will often dictate his mood or state of mind to people by changing his color.
Espio’s weapons of choice are giant shuriken, which he seems to be able to pull out of hammerspace.
Abilities:
Color changing
Partial Invisibility (Espio can cloak himself to appear invisible, as long as he stands still and isn’t connected to anything. This ability sees more frequent use when Espio is alone, as it doesn’t really apply much when he fights with his team.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style
Tornado Spin (Similar to Sonic’s Spin Dash, except Espio spins horizontally instead of vertically, the tornado spin is very slow compared to the Spin Dash, but it’s just as deadly.)
Tongue (Much like Yoshi, Espio’s tongue can be used to grapple onto things with a surprising amount of force, either to pull them toward Espio, or Espio can ‘tongue punch’ things. He hates to do this.)
Charmy Bee:
Voice Actor: Sam Lavagnino (Ideally anyway, I understand if he’d be unable to, but imagine it! Catbug as Charmy Bee!)
A ‘junior member’ of the Chaotix, Charmy is a little bee in training to become a vigilante! However, he’s a little too excited about that fact sometimes. He’s meant to be cute and lovable, but also a realistic child fighting against things he probably shouldn’t be fighting against. It’s hard to hate him when he means so well though and tries his very best at anything he does. In this new reboot, Charmy also gains a small affliction toward electricity!
Abilities:
Flight (no duh.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Charmy is surprisingly adept at carrying his fellow Chaotix members around with a Combi-Ring in hand, with Charmy around this can make for some high-octane, high-momentum fighting due to Charmy being so lightweight and quick.)
Volt Sting (Charmy can use his stinger, and believe me, it hurts. Fortunately, Charmy can sting more than once! and his sting will deliver an electric shock to anything it touches, this is bad news for anything mechanical, or wet!)
Thunder Shoot (Charmy can instantly ground any flying enemy by electrifying an ally and tossing them at the flying enemy!)
Vector the Crocodile:
Voice Actor: Keith Silverstein (Although I’m open to someone else if everyone else if sick of FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!)
The Chaotix’s greedy, but fiercely defensive ‘leader’ (he’s able to make tough decisions a lot better than Espio, but he isn’t very responsible in many ways). Vector got into the whole vigilante business because of the money he could gain from it, but after meeting Charmy and Espio, his whole world changed, and the rough-and-tough reptile has found a new calling, being a leader. Although Vector is often harsh, blunt, and dismissive, he’s also incredibly resourceful and has an eye for small details, so if he does push you away, it’s likely because he has a hunch on something related to it.
Abilities:
Air Dash (Vector can dash in any direction while in the air. This does not protect him from harm.)
Death Roll (Vector’s trademark donut-like Spin Dash, it’s a bit less controllable than a traditional Spin Dash but it’s immensely powerful because of Vector’s spiked back.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Vector specializes in a ‘wrecking ball’ sort of display with his fighting style, performing a Death Roll followed by his opponents flinging him into something by way of Thunder Shoot or Espio’s speed.) Vector can also achieve the same effect by flinging Charmy or Espio into an opponent, or by ‘holding’ (think Knuckles Chaotix) them.
Fire Combination + Volcanic Dunk* (While Espio is tornado spinning and Charmy is spinning as well, Vector can grab the both of them to make ‘fighting gloves’ of sorts. With this, Vector can perform the Volcanic Dunk, in which he turns Espio and Charmy into powerful fireballs which can smash into enemies to deal tremendous damage!)
*Yes I know this is what Team Sonic uses in Sonic Heroes but do you honestly want Vector Breath to be something that’s regularly used?
Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao):
Voice Actor: Michelle Ruff (I’d list a voice actor for Cheese too but... do I HAVE to? Chao can be easily voiced with stock squeaks or Chao sounds from SA2.)
A pleasant little girl who seems to get caught up in the ongoing war between Sonic and the forces of evil. Like Charmy, she’s a kid, although Cream is much more patient and polite than Charmy. Cream in this reboot would sorta fill the niche that Tails filled in SatAM, rarely going on adventures, but looking up to the main cast and always being ready to support them in times of need.
Abilities:
Flapping (Cream can flap her ears to gain a little extra height, although it’s made very clear this isn’t exactly equal to Tails’ flight and is very limited.)
Cheese (Cream can sic Cheese on anything she wants, although Cheese isn’t very tough, he’ll do his best until he’s knocked away!)
Big the Cat (and Froggy):
Voice Actor: Jon St. John
Big is large, and not very bright, even less so than Mighty. But he’s terrifyingly strong, he may just be one of the strongest characters in this new reboot in terms of raw damage output, probably second only to Omega actually. But, Big’s not a fighter and prefers to spend his days by the lakeside, fishing with his companion Froggy.
Unbeknownst to him, though, Froggy harbors a dark secret, and, in fact, is the current owner of the tail of the ancient God of Destruction, Chaos. How Froggy exactly came upon Chaos’ tail is unknown, but it’s gotten Big and Froggy into trouble before.
Abilities:
Super Strength
Fishing Sense (Big can sense what kind of fish or how many fish, or even foreign objects or other animals are in bodies of water. It’s unknown how he does or knows this, but he does.)
Silver the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Scott Menville
Silver is from an alternate future, a long-forgotten timeline in which Robotnik succeeded in conquering the world, But his massive cities and factories were later laid waste to by the sands of time, and ancient forces of nature, throwing the future Silver resides within into complete Crisis. And now, filled with a sense of vengeance and justice, Silver has come back to the past, determined to find the one responsible for whoever did this to his future, but... there’s just a couple problems.
He’s only fourteen years old.
Silver is also rather bright-eyed and gullible, and him messing with the streams of time might have a bigger domino effect than he realizes, even if he has no intention of messing anything up.
Abilities:
Psychokinesis (Silver can move, and throw objects with his mind. Silver’s telekinesis is limited only by his focus and stress, as if Silver gets too stressed, he may release some of the objects he’s holding, the same goes for if he becomes unfocused. Using said telekinesis can make Silver very physically exhausted though, especially if Silver moves HIMSELF with his mind, which he can do to hover in the air for a while. Objects held by Silver will freeze, suspended in whatever state they were in when Silver grabbed them, and the objects Silver holds are denoted by a cyan aura.)
Psychic Knives (Silver can condense his energy into crescent-shaped blades of energy, which he can fire off at his discretion, again, only limited by his physical exhaustion)
Teleportation (Silver has the limited ability to teleport short distances, although he doesn’t seem to have a very good handle on it, as he often messes up his positioning and seems to almost... forget he can do it?)
Blaze the Cat:
Voice Actor: Tara Strong
Like Silver, Blaze is from an alternate future. Blaze is Silver’s best friend, but also kind of a sisterly figure to him. Blaze is older than Silver, and is much more reserved, mature and wary than Silver is, although she’s still more than happy to help Silver, and ensure a good future for both him and herself. Blaze is proud, trying to make the best out of her situation by trying and believing herself to be the best around, in a way, she sort of views Silver more like a sidekick, even if Silver does tend to pull his weight.
Abilities:
Pyrokinesis (Blaze can summon, control and is immune to fire. Her ability to do so is limited, although her fires are known to become more intense whenever Blaze is enraged. Blaze can use her fire either for offense by spraying jets of flame from her hands, or defensively by cloaking her entire body in flame, or using the power of fire to float for short periods of time.)
Tornado Spin (Like Espio, Blaze tends to spin horizontally rather than vertical, this, combined with her pyrokinesis, makes her incredibly fearsome to deal with.)
Main Antagonists
You know what the fuck’s going on already. These are all my picks for Major Villains in the reboot. The big bads. The guys who are gonna come in and try to take all those Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones and shit I was talking about and wreak havoc on the peaceful Mobius Archipelago.
They are as follows:
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik
Orbot and Cubot
Metal Sonic
Heavy King (And the Hard-Boiled Heavies)
Great Battle Bird Kukku XV
Chaos
Emerl
Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris
In the end, it was hard to decide on what villains to choose to be big bads, Sonic has so many good ones, but this is what it all bled down to eventually. I feel kinda like Dragon Ball Z or... like, any fucking action anime or cartoon ever tbh. I wanted to give some more underrated villains a chance to shine like Kukku and Emerl, while also bringing back some old favorites like Chaos and Mephiles.
...ALSO, I’M GONNA GET TO TEAM DARK DON’T WORRY!
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik:
Voice Actor: Mike Pollock (as if there were any other choice.)
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is the biggest bad in this reboot, as he should be. Robotnik was formerly a young, gentleman scientist, who arrived on South Island with his colleague, Dr. Madonna to study the Mobini that lived there, however, using the grant money meant for his research, and not much caring about nature himself, Robotnik instead betrayed Dr. Madonna to begin forging an empire with his own two hands, an Empire he believed would eventually be able to conquer the world. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too... if all not for a meddlesome blue hedgehog child, who REALLY liked to compare the doctor to an egg. Since his first outing against the blue blur, Dr. Robotnik tried tirelessly, day and night, to get his empire up and into the air, coming back with bigger, and better firepower each time, even succeeding in conquering South Island and collecting six of the seven chaos emeralds at one point, but he was thwarted by this blue hedgehog, and later, his friends each time. This war has gone on for over 5 years now chronologically and maybe more in the actual scheme of things, and all those years of trying have really quite nipped at the doctor, who had gained a significant amount of weight, became a social pariah and had torn all his hair out, save for his mustache, which has overgrown and has become frayed, and the doctor had taken the name ‘Eggman’ as a shallow attempt to mock the blue blur. It’s not to say that Eggman hasn’t succeeded, his conquest and lust for power had bled everywhere, his Badniks, a series of small robots built by him, are an epidemic across the archipelago, he has factories, operations, and eyes everywhere, and Robotnik eventually succeeded in taking one of the Archipelago's many islands for his own, renaming what was once ‘North Island’ into ‘Eggmanland’, this little island is only a twisted glimpse into the madness of what a world under the doctor’s control could look like, his own personal carnival of evil, smog and dust, celebrating him, and only him. It’s these little successes, as well as his never-ending stubbornness and undying believe that man can and will always triumph over nature, that has warped Dr. Eggman from a nefarious, dashing gentleman, into a balding, crazed, nasty old coot. If trouble’s brewing on the islands, and you smell smog wafting by, you can be assured Dr. Eggman isn’t very far behind. To call him a ‘mad scientist’ is an understatement, but even through his delusions and megalomania, he really is a genius.
Orbot and Cubot:
Voice Actors: Kirk Thornton, Wally Wingert
Orbot and Cubot are the Doctor’s trusted aides and second-in-lines, and... probably the Doctor’s only friends as of current. Orbot and Cubot have special AI hand-crafted by the doctor and are arguably his most advanced and most sentient creations crafted by his own two hands. Orbot is serious, intelligent, and bitingly sarcastic, as he was meant to relay information about factories, schemes, and developments back to Eggman, whereas Cubot is dim-witted, slow, and lazy, as he was more meant to perform basic duties like keeping Robotnik’s living space neat and tidy (although he doesn’t always do the best job at this.) However, Orbot and Cubot have become more than that as time has gone on. Unlike the Modern games, Orbot and Cubot can actually hold their own in combat... well, sort of. They have their own unique ‘Scratch and Grounder’ style of dealing with Sonic and Co. and they don’t usually make much progress or get much done in this regard. In this reboot I want Orbot and Cubot’s designs to be updated besides being just ‘ball’ and ‘cube’ so that they can fight alongside Eggman and just look a lot more interesting in general.
Metal Sonic:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (with an intense, robotic filter) if we HAVE to give him a voice. I’d really just prefer Metal to be silent or voiced by music cues and sound effects.
Metal Sonic is Dr. Eggman’s greatest creation. Designed and built by a Dr. Eggman from the future, Metal was sent back in time to aid the Eggman of the past, this, however, proved to be a mistake, as with Metal under his belt, the Doctor became easily overconfident in his victory, thinking now that he had his supposed greatest creation to aid him, nothing could possibly stop him.
Which made it all the more disappointing when Metal Sonic inevitably failed and was defeated by Sonic.
However, that wasn’t the end of it for Metal Sonic, after being recovered from the future on Little Planet, Metal was repaired, and sent to do reconnaissance on Sonic and Tails during their visit to Mirage Island. In the process of getting there, however, Metal absorbed an artifact while patrolling around the Lost Labyrinth Zone, which superseded the limits of Metal’s hardware, and not only restored Metal to his former greatness but gave Metal something that few of Eggman’s creations can ever claim to have. True sentience.
Now fully aware of who he was, and what he was doing, Metal easily made it to Sonic and Tails, and upon seeing his organic counterpart for the first time in so long ever since their duel on Stardust Speedway, Metal was filled with rage. Rage, unlike anything The Mobius Archepeligo had ever seen.
The artifact has given Metal all sorts of mysterious abilities, like the ability to manifest a near-indestructible shield, the power to harness the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into overdrive and utilize his own overloading as a weapon, and along with being a creation of a Dr. Eggman who has seen the fall of the Earth...
Who knows what kind of sadistic, inhuman thoughts lie behind those synthetic, glowing eyes?
Abilities:
Hyperspeed Thrusters (Metal’s thrusters easily make him as fast as Sonic, and, like Sonic, Metal can still spin, although Metal can also fly with his thrusters.)
Black Shield (Metal can form a defense matrix around him using the power of the artifact he absorbed in Lost Labyrinth, the Black Shield is completely indestructible. Nothing can break through it. Not even something as powerful as Super Sonic could even crack it.) The only caveat is, using the Black Shield renders Metal completely immobile, and unable to attack, and it has a slight warmup and cooldown period.)
Overdrive (Metal can use the artifact he absorbed to utilize the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into Overdrive. While in overdrive, Metal Sonic’s entire body sparks with electricity, and Metal can manipulate how he uses that electricity, whether it’s to cloak himself in sparks to beef up his physical attacks or create pillars of sparks and arcs of electricity to attack foes from a distance. The only thing is, Metal cannot do this too much, as doing this can easily cause Metal to overheat, or completely overload and have a ‘blowout’... in other words, explode.)
Heavy King:
Voice Actor: Jim Cummings (Yes, I know Jim did SATAM Robotnik but that’s not the voice I’m imagining for Heavy King. Jim can do more than just Robotnik you know, even though my decision was partially influenced by it being a nice callback. Again, these voice actors are only projections.)/Barry Humphries
Heavy King used to be EggRobo, a robot (which later became a line of Robots) built in the image of Dr. Eggman himself and meant to serve as a decoy for him, and as a stand-in to carry out his own ends.
But the energy of the Phantom Ruby changed that.
Now, Heavy King is the leader of an elite squadron of his EggRobo brethren known as the Hard-Boiled Heavies. They used to serve Robotnik, before breaking free of his control and serving their own ends, beginning a new (albeit, much, much smaller) empire under their own names. He and the other heavies are a force to be reckoned with, few are able to match the ruthless, cold, metallic hand of Heavy King. Despite this, however, Heavy King is known to be much more diplomatic and reasonable than Robotnik, ironically enough, because he believes himself to be vastly superior in every way to organic life. However, his inflated ego pays a steep price if you catch him at the wrong time. However, Heavy King is the current holder of the Phantom Ruby, and that alone should scare you.
(Also I won’t go over each of the Heavies individually because I don’t feel like it, but, I will list their voice actors.)
Heavy Gunner: Patrick Warburton... or at least a cheap impression of him.
Heavy Rider: Eliza Schneider
Heavy Magician: Alexia Khadime
Heavy Shinobi: Seth Green (I picture Shinobi having much more of a nerdy weeb voice than having a serious Japanese accent like Espio.)
Great Battle Bird Kukku XV
Voice Actor: Tom Kenny
A lesser-known big bad, or rather, big bird, Great Battle Bird Kukku XV (he gets upset if you don’t say the full name), is the leader of the Battle Bird Empire, a battalion of birds who, at one point, sought to take over the archipelago in a similar manner to Dr. Eggman, however, Great Kukku XV was thwarted by Tails. Tails, funnily enough, doesn’t remember him at all, in fact, no one does. As a villain, hardly anyone takes Great Kukku XV very seriously, even with his massive armies and capability. Fact is, Great Kukku XV is just a little too immature to be a leader, and hence, he’s not very dangerous. However, his battalion did give rise to a certain, screwy, trigger happy, fellow green bomb-throwing bird who happens to be a defector of his...
In this reboot, there would probably be a lot of jokes about people not knowing who Great Kukku even is, or how dangerous he is, but don’t worry, he’ll get his time in the sun eventually.
Chaos
Voice Actor: N/A, Chaos only speaks in water sloshes.
Chaos is one of the many original forces of nature that populated the Archipelago many years ago. Legend has it that Chaos was responsible for the mass extinction of the Echidna on Angel Island, and was the one responsible for flooding Hydrocity Zone, and the former Hidden Palace Zone. Chaos was formed when a Chao, who happened to be very old and unhappy due to the Echidna tribes of the day treating his people very unfairly, mutated due to the exposure of Chaos Energy to the Chao’s genetically unstable body. Chaos is a being of pure hate and pure destruction. It’s almost entirely composed of a thick, water-like substance that can take on liquid or solid properties at Chaos’ discretion. His body hungers for Chaos Energy, and he is willing to destroy anything that stands in his way to have it, specifically by absorbing the Chaos Emerald. With each emerald Chaos absorbs, Chaos only becomes bigger, and stronger, becoming harder and harder to defeat. And if Chaos gathers all Seven of the Emeralds? You’d better hope you can find some way to calm this Great Old One down, otherwise, your world may just end up underwater. Luckily, Chaos was sealed inside of the Master Emerald by its former guardian, Tikal, and there he shall remain... for now, at least.
Emerl
Voice Actor: Various (copies the voices of others. To speak it splices lines that it’s heard together.)
Originally created directly to counter Chaos whilst the Echidna tribes were facing extinction, Emerl is a Gizoid, a kind of Robot created to copy the physical data of others. Although one can initially defeat Emerl pretty easily, it’s advised not to vary your tactics too much, as Emerl’s original purpose, and his ultimate capability, is to copy any behavior he’s seen, in order to not only replicate it, but replicate it better, and hence, conquer its original user. Terrifyingly, Emerl can even copy phenomenon that he otherwise wouldn’t, or shouldn’t be able to use, such as Chaos Control, Sonic’s Maximum Speed, or Tails’ intellect. The only thing truly limiting Emerl... is the kind of opponents he faces. And, if you give Emerl to someone who understands him and knows how he works, you may just be dealing with one of the most fearsome fighters the Mobius Archepeligo has ever known.
Mephiles, Iblis and Solaris
Voice Actor: Dan Green (Mephiles only) (This is just because Dan also voices Knuckles ideally but, again, if Dan doesn’t wanna come back to Sonic after being replaced, I understand that.)
If Chaos was the patron saint of water, Solaris is the patron saint of fire. Born from a sacred flame created by the Echidna, Solaris was worshipped by the surviving Echidna as a force that could potentially vanquish Chaos, as the ‘’sun’ to dry the rain. However, the tribes’ malicious intents caused their newly formed ‘God’ to become more of a beast, and it only helped Chaos in driving the Echidna extinct. Solaris later retreated to the bottom of the ocean after all was said and done, slumbering beneath the surface in an underground cave, in a damaged, unstable state.
Solaris has re-awoken twice since this has happened, and both times, his unstable shell split and formed two halves, it’s raw power, known as Iblis, and it’s mind, and spirit, known as Mephiles. The two halves of Solaris first re-awoke in an Alternate Timeline where Robotnik had conquered the world, re-awakening as the folly of the dictator had driven the Sun God’s split soul to awaken when the intense greenhouse heat began to boil the ocean. Mephiles’ primordial form simply died off in the intense heat, but Iblis remained awake, laying waste to the already horrible wasteland that was Robotnik’s Bad Future. Many survivors who reside within this future came to blame Iblis for their problems, even though Robotnik was what had destroyed it centuries earlier.
As for the other time The soul and body of Solaris re-awoke?...
Well... we’ll get to that. Let’s come back to someone I’m sure you’re all waiting for.
Antiheroes
HERE HE IS, OKAY? YOU HAPPY? I was saving him for a good reason! I actually want Shadow (and Rouge, to an extent, she kinda keeps her evil side tbh) to start out as a big bad! After Shadow’s done BEING a big bad though, he’ll become similar to his post-adventure 2 self, specifically how he behaves in Sonic 06 and Sonic Heroes, except with a bit more sympathy. Modern Shadow has a lot of brooding, edgy bite to him, and while that’s cool and all, I feel like there should be more to Shadow than just brooding and standing around crossing his arms and saying ‘tch’ all the time.
Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Anyone that’s not Kirk Thornton. I actually don’t have a good answer for who Shadow’s voice actor should be but, honestly, anything would be better than his current one in my honest opinion.
Shadow was synthesized fifty years ago on a small, man-made satellite called the Space Colony ARK by the brilliant scientist Dr. Gerald Robotnik. He was born from a desire to find a cure for the seemingly incurable disease for his granddaughter, Maria. However, due to an accident when splicing the genes of the quill of a Mobian Hedgehog, and experimental biomaterial found on the fragments of an asteroid that collided with the Earth millions of years ago, the doctor accidentally created something he absolutely didn’t intend, Life. And thus, Project Shadow was born. Gerald felt attached to his creation, viewing the resulting creation, which he called ‘Shadow’ as one of his own. Shadow developed rapidly, quickly maturing into an infant, and then juvenile, yet seemingly normal Mobian Hedgehog. Shadow’s equivalent age later capped once Shadow was done growing, and he remained that way, immortally perfect. The Ultimate Lifeform. Tests with Shadow later showed his destructive capabilities, as it seemed the asteroid’s DNA had morphed Shadow to be far beyond the capabilities of any normal Hedgehog, even in peak physical condition at that age, capable of creating explosions, firing bolts of energy, and even freezing time, appearing to ‘teleport’ in the process. Despite these curiosities, Shadow grew fond of Maria in his stay at the ARK, although Shadow couldn’t help her recover, he did make her much happier. However, a raid on the Space Colony by the mainland’s military led to a massive capsizing of the project, with the intention to destroy Shadow, who was viewed as a dangerous, alien, unholy abomination. Before he could be killed though, Maria shot Shadow down to Earth in an escape pod, where he subsequently landed deep in the jungles of Cocoa Island... but, Maria was murdered in the process of doing so. Shadow was later recovered by Gerald’s other grandson, Ivo Robotnik, 50 years after the tragedy. Hesitant to release Shadow immediately, it’s known that Robotnik has spoken to Shadow in his pod, although about what matters is unknown. For now, Shadow slumbers deep within the confines of Eggmanland, waiting for his proper, strategic time to be unleashed and to wreak his horrible vengeance upon the Earth.
I’ll bring up Shadow again later when we talk about how I project the series to actually go, for now, just sit tight and let’s talk about the rest of Team Dark... and some familiar faces.
Abilities:
Spin Dash
Homing Attack (Shadow can automatically home in on opponents while also performing an Air Dash.)
Burning Rollout (Inspired by the flame ring of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow can cloak his spinning form in fire by turning on his shoes when rolling, doing this will significantly up the strength of his spin, and make a nice little ring of fire around his spinning form.)
Chaos Control (Can be used as short-distance teleportation, as a way to buff Shadow’s speed immensely, or as a way to freeze or dramatically slow Shadow’s relative perspective of time by dramatically increasing his speed.)
Chaos Spear (These are green bolts of pure, chaos energy. The energy used to form these bolts is so unstable that once hurled at something, the ‘spear’ will likely explode, although, if it doesn’t, it will easily pierce through whatever it hits. Shadow likes to shout ‘DISAPPEAR!’ before hurling these at things for some reason.)
Chaos Blast (Shadow’s Chaos Blast can be considered his ‘ultimate’ attack, Chaos Blast sees Shadow creating a kind of ‘mini-singularity’ with chaos energy that will detonate after a short time, easily eradicating anything caught in the explosion’s radius, even the ground around Shadow. The only problem with this is, doing this is a huge strain on Shadow’s natural supply of Chaos Energy, so a lengthy cooldown period is inevitable.)
and of course, we can’t forget
The Roundhouse Kick
Minor Antagonists
These are characters who are villains but are also more likely to show up in arcs that are only a couple episodes long or are side or off-boss fights.
I’ll be honest, most of you know these characters already, so I’m just gonna run through them super quickly and give my suggested changes and my justifications for them.
Rouge the Bat
E-123 OMEGA
Dave the Intern
Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel)
Bean the Dynamite
Bark the Polar Bear
Rouge the Bat:
Voice Actor: Karen Strassman
Rouge is a thief and a treasure hunter but is also working for the military agency of the mainland, G.U.N. Rouge is sly, sneaky and has a silver tongue, easily able to manipulate people into what she wants by pure wordplay alone. Rouge is a lot less active of a fighter than Sonic and Co. as she prefers to stalk quietly in the shadows, and strike when the time is right. In this reboot, Rouge is gonna wear something a bit more modest. I’m sorry, I hate Rouges’ clothes in canon. That fucking catsuit? has gotta go. She can still look cool and... *gag* “”sexy”” but, I’d rather her not wear... THAT? But, I do want her personality to remain mostly intact because in full honesty? She’s not a bad character on paper. Like Shadow, though I do kinda want Rouge to be a straight-up antagonist at first, and a very greedy one at that.
E-123 OMEGA:
Voice Actor: Vic Mignogna
What can I say? Omega doesn’t need to change much at all, really. He works in about any Sonic setting tbh. He’s loud, and he likes to blow things up, and he doesn’t emote very well, what else is there? In this reboot though, Omega will be the only E-Series Robot, or rather the only... surviving one. And, yeah, like Rouge and Shadow too, I think Omega should start out as an antagonist.
Dave the Intern:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (What? We gotta keep up the tradition of Dave sharing a voice with Sonic!)
An odd choice for a minor antagonist I know, but Dave the Intern is REALLY funny? And I love the idea of a character just hating Sonic for no discernable reason other than ‘he’s popular and cool and I’m not.’ I also thought it’d be cool if Dave frequently got way in over his head with the shit he does, and put himself into trouble that Sonic (reluctantly) had to get him out of. Plus, I really wanted to include some representation of Sonic Boom in this reboot because Sonic Boom as a show is really funny and really good, and I think taking a page from it might be good, plus, Boom is a part of Sonic’s history too!
Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel):
Voice Actor: Dwight Schultz
Fang is the leader of Team Hooligan, and in a similar vein to Great Kukku XV I think he’d take himself way too seriously, but would play off of other characters. In Fang’s mind, he’s a trained assassin, like an evil Aussie-accent Batman or something of that stretch. But, really? He’s just a sleazy conman with a popgun. I feel like a good joke to make in this series would be Fang reaching for what he thinks is his actual pistol, but then he’d pull it out and fire it and it’d be one of his fake popguns. And, do I even need to make a joke about the comedic possibilities between him and Shadow using guns? Also, his real name being Nack the Weasel but he wants everyone to call him Fang the Sniper is funny. I’m sorry but ‘Fang the Sniper’ is just a silly name and I like the idea of Fang being the equivalent of one of those nice guys with Otaku Katanas who think they’re WAY cooler than they actually are. I wanted to choose Fang as a minor antagonist in the reboot just because of the kind of character I think he is, he thinks he has everything under control and has all the cards laid out in front of him when in reality, this setup of his just fails dramatically. The kind of interactions between him and Sonic this could spell out are amazing.
Bean the Dynamite:
Voice Actor: Eric Bauza
What do you get when you throw Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker in a blender and make him an unstable arsonist? Bean the Dynamite, that’s what. I’d want Bean in this reboot to be an off-the-wall, screwy, but surprisingly resourceful and clever, explosion-crazed maniac. He wouldn’t be... *gag* ‘insane’, so much as he would be just hyper and unable to calm down, again, like Woody Woodpecker or Daffy Duck. He’d be quick-witted, fast-talking and zippy, even more than Sonic himself is. (In the end, Sonic would always outpace him, but the reflexes on THIS bird are crazy.) Also, I feel like the idea of Bean being a defector of the Battle Kukku Armada is just... great, considering they’re all bomb-throwing birds, but THIS one was a little too off-the-handle for even them? He’d be a real character and a surprisingly dangerous threat for Sonic and Co.
Bark the Polar Bear:
Voice Actor: I’m... actually not too sure who to cast Bark as tbh. Mostly because I see him being very quiet and not... speaking, much at all?
Bark is a quiet tough guy. He’s smarter than he looks, but he’s big, he’s mean, he’s tough, and he will Hulk slam at least one character in the length of this reboot. I don’t really have much idea on where to take Bark, I just think he deserves a place as a minor villain.
Projected direction for canon
So, we have all the pieces of the puzzle, let’s see how they all fit together! I’ll be going through these with the assumption that one game can be made to represent each season of the show in its entirety.
For this, I honestly think it would be best if we split this reboot up based upon Sonic the Hedgehog’s current history with its elements. Think, almost, the way Sonic Generations told its story. We’ll start with something with a more Classic Vibe to it, then move into something more Adventure-like, and then, finally, we do something a bit more Modern! It’ll be a little less linear, and we’ll double dip here and there, but it’ll all line up!
Because of this, I’d like to establish what games have already PASSED before going into this series. This is what all has happened going in, in roughly the chronological order they happened in.
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (16-bit)
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (8-bit)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
SegaSonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-Bit)
Sonic CD
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple Trouble
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1, 2, and Metal.
Sonic Mania
The intention is to begin sort of... around the time JUST before Sonic Adventure 1 happened in the old rudimentary timeline before Sonic Forces came out and clarified Classic and Modern Sonic were different beings.
Season 1/Game 1: Genesis
The first few episodes of the series will be more dedicated to introducing the characters and Sonic’s new home. We’ll see the new Sonic, the new Tails, the new Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, and Ray for the very first time, and we’ll also get to see some of the characters’ new capabilities as they take on some minor villains or assaults led by Orbot and Cubot for the first couple episodes; but not at all subtly tease at something bigger and better coming, although we’re also shown how frequent scuffles between Sonic and Eggman exactly are, as we see plenty of mention of the Doctor, but he never physically appears.
Then, I’d say at about Episode 5 or 6 out of say, 22-24? Eggman steps in and introduces us to his new Master Plan, as he does. To build a new Death Egg (which, Sonic obviously chides him on doing the same thing a THIRD time.), but, as Robotnik does, he turns out to be serious, and the episodes from there on out are a race against time for Sonic and co. to gather all the Chaos Emeralds from various different zones of various different challenging geographies, fight off villains and giant robots, learn valuable morals, run into some familiar faces, and have a couple laughs along the way.
The climax of the season would come with a few episodes left, where Sonic and Co. finally have all the Emeralds, and they chase Eggman down to the New Death Egg, maybe there could be an encounter with Metal Sonic along the way because nostalgia and to introduce Metal into the continuity, and of course things’ll play out from there, Robotnik gets the upper hand and shows his shit, gets in a giant robot, dukes it out with Super Sonic, and BAM! End of Season/Game!
At the very end of season 1/Game 1 though, I’d like to include a little teaser for Season 2/Game 2 in the form of a familiar-looking escape pod in the middle of a jungle, full of green bubbling fluid, and a flash of red eyes.
Season 2/Game 2: Chaos Emerald Chaos
Right out of the gate in Season 2/Game 2, we’re back in the game as Sonic and Eggman are seen duking it out a while after the first game/season has ended, but in a much different area than we’d seen in Season 1/Game 1. This fight would lead up to the pod in the teaser after Eggman lures Sonic into a dark room with the green glow in sight. By one way or another, maybe on purpose or on accident, this pod breaks open, and something is released from it. Sonic is understandably confused, but then, is knocked down, and a panning shot reveals one of three of our major antagonists for the season/game, Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow fucking wipes the floor with Sonic in this first encounter, but instead of finishing him off, Eggman instructs Shadow to leave him be and search for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds instead. Shadow nods and simply leaves via Chaos Control. Eggman, on the meanwhile, begins transporting Sonic back to North Island via dropship, revealing by surprise that this isn’t on North Island, but rather a much smaller place Eggman was using as a trap.
Meanwhile, Sonic’s friends (with Knux noticeably absent) are confused to learn that Sonic has been... committing crimes, upon his return back from a scuffle back with Eggman, and seeming very much unlike himself, always hiding away in the dark and staying away from everyone. When they go to confront him, it turns out that this was actually Shadow, disguised as Sonic, who was simply searching for the emeralds for Dr. Eggman.
Sonic’s friends demand to know where Sonic is, but Shadow kicks all their asses instead, and something about the Master Emerald is mentioned after the fight. We then cut away to Knuckles, who is soon confronted by Shadow.
Shadow puts up a hard fight, but, with the help of the chaos emerald he already had, defeats Knuckles, and goes to take the Master Emerald. But, in a last ditch effort to save the gem, Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald, causing the shards to scatter all across the islands. Shadow, understandably frustrated by this, scoffs and leaves, seemingly fooled into thinking the Master Emerald WAS destroyed. Unknowingly, however, shattering the Master Emerald caused Chaos, slumbering within the Emerald, to awaken.
Knuckles, obviously horrified by what he’s done, abandons Angel Island and sets to work on finding both the pieces of the Master Emerald, and any Chaos Emeralds he can, to stop Chaos before anything goes wrong.
At this point, we go back to Sonic, who finally escapes as the dropship taking him to EggmanLand and, by extension, escapes from the city as he hurries to try to reunite with his friends and tell them what happened.
From there, a combination of the events of Adventure 1 and 2 (with the addition of Metal Sonic and some other characters of course.) would transpire, with Rouge the Bat getting involved with Knuckles due to her finding the shards of the Master Emerald, and the Chaos Emeralds trading hands several times, all up until the Season/Game’s climax.
It would all build with Robotnik planning to use Chaos to terraform the Earth by transforming him into Perfect Chaos, who, once he takes form, begins wreaking havoc on a coastal city on the mainland. At this point, the Chaos Emeralds seem shut off, and even though the Master Emerald is restored, it seems like there’s nothing that can be done. Shadow, having already begun to go through a change of heart when he sees the kind of destruction the doctor’s plans have wrought, and after some choice words from Amy, decides instead to join Sonic and Co. in what seems like their darkest hour. And, Shadow mentions that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the emeralds, being in-tune with Chaos Energy himself, he’d know this.
And so, Super Sonic and Super Shadow defeat Perfect Chaos together, Knuckles and the spirit of Tikal work together to seal Chaos back inside the Master Emerald, and the city begins to drain.
Shadow, having felt satisfied with this, then decides to go off on his own for a while, and mentions something about ‘wanting to discover himself’, and ‘trying to decide what Maria would have wanted me to be.’
Oh, and Eggman is finally thrown in prison for literally capsizing an entire city. But don’t worry, he’ll be back.
End of Season 2/Game 2.
Season 3/Game 3: Triple Trouble!
This Eggmanless Season/Game would feature a ‘Triple Threat’, in the form of 3 major villains! And all three of them brand new to the series! We’re introduced to Emerl in this season, as well as Great Kukku XV, and Heavy King.
The entire season would be intense, Team Sonic rushing to get the Chaos Emeralds once again, while the Battle Birds (frequently interrupted by Bean the Dynamite, calling out to his ‘brothers’) and Heavies scramble to get them before the team does.
All the while... Emerl grows stronger and stronger by the minute.
And, in a surprise twist, Emerl, having copied the data of Great Kukku XV and the Heavies, among many others, grows the strongest he ever has, and, like Mecha Sonic in Sonic 3, uses the Master Emerald (likely stolen by Heavy King or Kukku at this point) to attain a Super form, and Emerl becomes a terrifying conglomerate of everything that has led up to this point, Perfect Emerl, the thing originally meant to take down PERFECT CHAOS.
But, luckily, Kukku and King realize when they’ve been beaten, and decide to help Super Sonic take down Perfect Emerl.
End of Season 3/Game 3. But like Season 1, let’s end off on a teaser. How about a small, flickering flame, with a visible shadow?
Season 4/Game 4: Return of Solaris
This is the final season/game I have planned out, although that’s not to say more couldn’t be done with this concept, it’s just about as far as I got. Essentially I was thinking this season could be a retelling and retooling of Sonic 06 with some details omitted or changed up like, for instance:
The romance between Sonic and Elise being outright axed! Matter of fact, while we’re at it, let’s just NOT make Elise a focus character so she doesn’t eat up screentime?
The weird time shit in this season/game being altered with Time Stones instead of Chaos Emeralds!
Less plotholes!
Focus on NONLINEAR timelines with LINEAR storytelling.
Silver is less silly!
Metal Sonic!
The Chaotix! AND THEY’RE HERE TO ACTUALLY BE HELPFUL!
Important Sonic characters being important!
Hey guess what? Eggman’s back and busted out of jail and he’s kicking ass! And he’s totally gonna release Solaris even though that didn’t work out so well for him last time!
Mephiles is still a cool villain! And he gets cool new designs for this series too that don’t stray too far from his original form!
I feel like this season/game would be kind of a hard fusion of Sonic CD and Sonic 06, with elements of Sonic CD being changing the past to ensure the future, and the future/present changing as a result.
The climax of this series would be, well, you know by now. Sonic getting shot in the back, but then revived using the Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones together. But, even with Super Sonic, all seems hopeless, but, Sonic and Knuckles seem to have an idea, and it leads up, to our grand finale:
Solaris, the extra-dimensional being of ultimate power.
Versus
Hyper Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, Super Tails, Super Knuckles, Super Amy, Super Mighty, and Super Ray.
With Solaris finally felled, Sonic and Co. use the last of the energy of their super forms to do two more things.
Vanquish the flame of Solaris and Mephiles, and ensure that Solaris may never return to any Time Stream.
Silver’s future, although still broken, now looks much brighter, and the world is saved for the final time.
End of Season 4/Game 4.
I’m sure these ideas could be tweaked or changed around to span more seasons/games if certain characters or aspects of the series become popular, or if demand for certain characters appearing gets to be enough. Sonic has an immense library of games to do over or retell in this reboot, why not?
And, this is just my idea for it, it doesn’t have to go this way explicitly. My only goal with this was to try to unify the Sonic lore in an interesting, unique manner, but also in such a way that it was new, fresh, and it made sense, most of all!
Opening
This really applies more toward the cartoon part of this reboot, that’s not to say the video game COULDN’T utilize the cartoon’s opening or something, it’s just that the opening is more for the show than it is for the games.
There’s a number of ways to go here, but in my mind, the best way to open a Sonic cartoon? Is the way you’d open a Sonic game. How about a condensed ‘remake’ of Sonic CD’s opening, with a few short clips from the first few episodes thrown in there to get people curious and excited about the show when it first airs?
There’s a cover of Sonic Boom by Crush 40 and Cash Cash just waiting to be used for this very thing!
I also think a condensed (that is to say, censored. I hate to censor a great song but ‘kicking-ass fast’ is a bit much for a show that’s likely gonna be PG-rated.) version of the Zebrahead (aka the BEST) version of His World would make for a GREAT opening.
Or if we wanna piggyback off of the recent success of Mania, how about a condensed version of Friends? Maybe we could even end the intro off on a remake of Sonic Mania’s title theme if we wanna have like, a classic Sonic emblem at the end of the opening.
I’d say the opening should be about... 60% new animation with Sonic platforming around and parkouring like he does or whatever, and about 40% old animation of various clips from the show or maybe even the games if we’re feeling kinda frisky to show off the series we’re about to watch, but also for budgetary reasons and to, again, get people interested in what’s actually IN the show, or maybe we could even do it like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s part 1 opening or something where a couple of important scenes from the very beginning of the show or games are re-animated in a flashy way to achieve the same effect, but also wow the audience. That'd be a huge budget sink though and going a classic clip-show-and-new-shit route may just be the ideal compromise.
Marketing
This next part is also a lot more cartoon oriented, and kinda heavily depends on who’s gonna be sponsoring the show and who’s gonna be running it, but, hear me out.
Part of Sonic’s rise to popularity in the 90s was controversial, competitive advertising. And you know what? I haven’t seen anything really quite like this in a long time (except maybe for cleaner commercials), but, lots of people remember how pushy and in your face these commercials were, and how much they really pushed the superiority of the product they were advertising. So you know what? Let’s bring this back. Let’s bring back Sonic’s violent guerilla marketing campaigns.
It’d be a great throwback as well as a statement about Sonic REALLY comin’ back and comin’ back hot; which might get some new people interested to at least watch a few episodes, and in the process of that, they may find they like the new show/games a lot!
(NOTE: I DON’T HATE NICKELODEON, AND THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT I THINK THE SHOW’S SONIC SHOULD LOOK LIKE, THIS IS JUST A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT OF WHAT I THINK THIS SHOW’S ADVERTISING COULD LOOK LIKE)
Or, if we want to opt for more positive, passive marketing strategies, why don’t we revisit an idea that was misused and make it better?
Idk about anyone else but I actually really like the ‘blue streaks to show where Sonic’s been’ idea that the movie posters did, and I think it has potential to make a really memorable-looking advertisement.
Or, why not opt for a more nostalgic passive approach and recreate some of Sonic’s old box art?
Again, it’d be a great throwback as well as a way to get people interested in the show. Although, if we go this route I WOULD say maybe we should make it a little more interesting than just ‘Sonic 1 pose on a black grid or popart background’? Maybe we should combine these box arts and add the pop-art details for little pops of color while Sonic bursts out of this black-grid frame with a richly detailed drawing of Green Hill in the background? I dunno.
Conclusion
Okay, so. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to explain (like other marketing stuff, merchandising, the new actual GAMEPLAY for these new games, how to write the characters and humor, how I think the general ART STYLE of these new cartoons and games should look, etc.) as a matter of fact, I still have a ton more ideas for this reboot, but, here’s the main point:
Sonic the Hedgehog, right now? Sucks. Because it’s such a mess. It has too many ideas that are going off in too many different directions. The best way to change that, in my eyes, is to start over and try to unify all these broken-up ideas into one. I believe this is possible, while still maintaining a pretty widespread appeal and giving broken, old ideas a second chance to shine, but still being fresh and new enough to have a lasting impact and leave the door open for new content later.
I’m really bad at ending posts like this, but, if you went into this post thinking that Sonic can’t or shouldn’t change, I hope I’ve at least provoked thought on the matter. And, maybe, all those hardworking people at SEGA will decide one day that things need to change, whether by a reboot, rewrite or just... doing something a little bit different.
Maybe then, just maybe.
Our blue blur will really shine again.
- Jenny, of @jennikkugoesoff and @jennikku
#Sonic the Hedgehog#Sonic the Hedgehog Reboot#Sonic Reboot#Sonic#sth#jennikkugoesoff#my rants#my essays
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