Frontiers really drove home the fact that Sonic's friends are his friends first and foremost, not followers or team of sidekicks. They are his family, his partners in crime, especially Tails. That with all of them together they're a formidable team but they are not just side characters in Sega verse who only support the hero's role. They are the heroes just as much. They'd hold strong when he couldn't, they are pillars he could fall back on just like he is someone they can fall back on. Equals. A family.
This game fixes everything the few past games did to their roles and characters and emphasizes these mobians are not cheer leaders, they are front liners, they are not simply support characters, they are their own person.
Knuckles isn't just a guardian, he's a friend, a brother, a protector, and the last of his kind and someone who deserves to live his life to the fullest instead of keeping watch day and night. He deserves to travel without a threat of world ending, he deserves to meet people, make friends, try grapes of different regions, take day offs, be the child he was robbed of being.
Amy is not just a fangirl chasing after someone she has a crush on. She is kind, compassionate and strong girl who believes in the good in the world and wants to help everyone, show the world the wonders and beauty in small things that go ignored. She has grown up so much.
And Tails, sweet little Tails has always been just as much of a hero as Sonic. He is not the sidekick, he was never the sidekick, that was what people thought him as and he used to see himself as. Sonic never saw him as the sidekick, Sonic sees him as an equal, as a brother, he always had. Tails is such a wonderful child, he could invent things that can help the planet at a massive scale, he can make whole tech companies, he can make new discoveries, advance science so much farther than one could anticipate, can command whole squadrons of jets, he is loved by people and tiny critters of the planet just as much, he is the hero and he deserves to be acknowledged as that.
Being stuck in a limbo gave them all the time to think about what they all want to pursue in life, on discovering their full potential, reaching far across the new frontiers, that they all have the potential for so much more. That they don't have to think of themselves as followers, they are equals. They are a team.
As for Sonic? This game shows that Sonic isn't just a hero who saves the world and helps people because he is nice or a good person. While those are true, saving the world or helping because he was nice wasn't why he was going day and night on no food and zero sleep and constantly at move and slowly getting more and more cyber corrupted, nearing the brink of death. He did it for his friends. Not just because he is a nice person or it's in his nature. If that were the case, he would've approached everything differently, he wouldn't be anxious to hurry on setting the others free but still calm and chill while talking to his friends, he wouldn't be constantly worrying about his brother, he wouldn't be reluctant to help the Kocos. He was listening to the mysterious voice he knew nothing about and proceeded doing everything it told him even though he doesn't trust a mysterious stranger that easily, even though what it told him was slowly destroying him, because that was the only way he knew of which could set his friends free. He didn't know any other way and did something that kept taking a lot out of him (like dude literally looked dead on his feet during the later half of the game, clutching his torso, walking slow, subtle panting) just to save his friends. He's a hero yes, he has endured many things and gone without sleep in the past yes, he helps people because that's just like him yes, but from how anxious and reluctant he seemed when it came to helping out Kocos, it was clear he was more worried about saving his friends than anything. Sonic in almost the entirety of the game had no drive to save the world or anything, he didn't even know whether the world was even in danger or not, he wasn't a hero in this game, he didn't have the role of a hero in this game.
He was a friend.
This was Sonic with his hero mask off. Tired, concerned, at wits and strength's end, enduring, probably knowing he might not survive that corruption but smiling because then his friends would be free and he'd be darned before any of them gets hurt. He was willing to die to set his friends free. In Unleashed, he told Chip, "Do I need a reason to help out a friend?" But even in Unleashed he was on the mission of saving the world. This time? This game added lore and emotions and character growth and themes of living and acceptance and peace and perseverance and hope, but at the core of it all, it was centered on family.
For Sonic, it was centered on protecting his family. For Tails, Knuckles and Amy, it was centered on growing to their full potential but still protecting their friend. For Sage, it was about protecting her family. And what's funny is that she wasn't even the villain or had any intention to harm in the first place, all her warnings were honest. She was attempting to get him to see reason and have him leave so he wouldn't get corrrupted and so the world doesn't get placed in danger.
As Sage said, "Both of us will do anything to protect those who are precious to us."
He'd do anything for his friends. And they are precious to him, more than anyone or anything else. More than the people, more than the inhabitants of Starfall Islands, more than chaos and Kocos, more than the ancients, more than the world. He helped save the world from The End but he wouldn't have been able to that in the first if it weren't for his friends. They not only set him free, they also gave him drive to continue. The first thing he says after being cured was, "I will not let you down." Sonic's friends are precious to him.
....
The emotions, the dialogue, the story, the characterization, the lore, the music... This game is the revival of this franchise. Even its title is perfect for the storyline as well as lore.
Also, my heart hurts from so many emotions.
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Obviously I had to make it a thing (Patreon)
Spoilers for Handplates! Make sure you’re all caught up before continuing!
I ended up scene-picking around the timeline at pretty-much-random, whatever I thought fit the lyrics the best in the moment of blinding inspiration (lol), but now that I’ve got the basics down to paper, I think I’d more carefully choose in mostly-chronological order. That also means some would have to be cut, so I want to show them off here! :D I also drew them all from memory so if there’s inconsistencies, that’s why lol
For example this is one of the very early lyrics, but the events take place well down the timeline! I’m sure I can find a good stand in - mostly I just wanted to draw Papyrus from this scene, ugh I love him ♥ And the lyrics do fit!
Looking back to Sans for reassurance haha. I changed a few of the lyrics to be more Papyrus-specific -
- also featured here! He’s got the Gaster pose going on here hehe, and cutting around in time of him in Snowdin and also back at Asgore’s, him reassuring Asgore about Sans’ HP is so cute, I had to make reference to it haha
Happiest little sibling spinnies <3 <3 Probably the cutest panel of the whole bunch honestly haha ♥ Their little faces!! Ugh 💕
One of those instances of the lyrical contradictions, and I think I would keep this jump forward - everything has changed! And they’re really not okay, but they have each other
The one makes me laugh honestly, a bit dark lol. All their safe people, except for the two that take up the rear of each. I mean, technically it’s not inaccurate with Flowey’s, he won’t be alone! Unfortunately. The human, well
Started settling into a rhythm by this point, and rather pleased for it :) Poor Papyrus! He didn’t do anything wrong and he still has all these sad feelings about it!
All catching up to him :( You can only run from and ignore your problems for so long - this line feels so him, dealing with what their world is and all that entails, poorly
I appreciate the fact that Papyrus has this dream several times, it fits lots of places! Gaster look what you did to him even when you don’t exist anymore
Papyrus as an adult! Though he also is in the one with him and Sans dream-sharing. Things start breaking real bad for him, I’m still not over how good this song is lol
I did admittedly go a little over-the-top with these, he was not crying this much but I just jsalfdjfds this scene is so- much. So much! The lyrics goaded me, blame them haha - and also the attention to his neck! Even if it’s not in reference to choking on tears specifically, still drawn to the same place! I love Sans going to comfort him as well as rally him ahhhhh
I got his Soul glitches wrong haha, but seriously! This song, I swear!!
A bit of irony - he’s being heard! So much! Just not listened to. I am so enamoured with his pose callbacks throughout the entire comic ugh, so beautifully done
Handing off the song for a moment to someone who actually can rewind it - I don’t think I’ve ever drawn a Genocide Run human now that I think of it :0 It was so satisfying to draw Gaster kneeling on the ground like that haha, contact points were - on point ✨ for this doodle session hehehe
Originally I had his glow coloured in purple but this was one that I actually went back to look at (because I love this scene so much hhgggg <3 <3 <3) and had to change to his natural colour - he deserves it!! He’s earned it!!
I’ve honestly fallen more in love with this song through him and vice versa haha ♪ It’d be quite a bit before/if I could make a full version, even just with what I’ve got here, but it was so fun to draw at all ♥
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Did Jason open up his trauma to Jazz? Since she is the group team mom
Oh my Ancients, yes. She cracked that boy open like a walnut. It took a bit, but Jazz reminds him somewhat of Barbara and Harley, so he warmed up to her fairly quickly overall. She really taught him what it's like to have a big sibling(sorry, I love Dick but he was a shit older brother before Jason died).
Jason will talk to Jazz about things he'd never say to anyone else. He actually opens up to Ember and Kitty too, but they're more for when he wants someone to cry with and to have get all enraged on his behalf. Jazz is who he talks to when he wants to fix it.
It wasn't always like that. He had to learn how to differentiate. Had to learn when he needed help, when he had things that needed to be fixed. He had to unlearn the emotional constipation and phobia of talking about his feelings he learned from Bruce too. But Jazz is used to dealing with teenage boys who won't admit they're hurting even on pain of death. She's good at subtly working their pain out and helping them confront it. (She learned a lot from helping Danny and from her Psych classes so she's more crafty about it too)
Jazz is one of the biggest reasons Jason is as stable and emotionally healthy as he is. He's not healed completely. He won't be until he gets closure with Bruce and the Joker. And there's some things that will always stick around. Trauma leaves scars. But without Jazz, we wouldn't have the Jason we do in TKAHRK we'd have someone far closer to the Jason from UTRH.
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Dean is such a paradox for me because on the one hand, I have been actively triggered by him in the show, there are moments where, intentionally or not, the writers managed to create a portrayal of manipulation and abuse and control issues that it sets off actual alarms for me. And on the other hand, I would not have him any other way. There is something — not comforting, that’s too soft a word — about knowing where Dean’s actions stem from, having seen and learned all that we do about his childhood neglect and parentification and the trauma he goes through repeatedly in the show, and that he doesn’t come out clean. He comes out a goddamn mess who ends up hurting the people around him in reaction to his own pain!
There’s a reality there that’s. Almost nice, actually. Distressing to watch, but it is a fucking mess, it’s a good mess! He’s got zero healthy coping skills and a healthy relationship with say, his brother, is terrifying because it leaves him open to abandonment!
I’m not sure I’m wording this correctly. There is a way to be a good abuse victim. Take the pain, martyr yourself on it, and then, even if you have no support or idea how to, then you have to become a Good Person who never hurts anyone the way you have been learning to your entire life. Simply toss everything that shaped you out the door and emerge a saint with a tragic backstory. And Dean is not that. And that’s so fucking good. Everything that he has gone through continues to effect the way he treats the people around him, and he can’t fight the behaviors he might recognize as harmful because he also sees them as protecting him (or protecting Sam by keeping Sam with him.)
And sometimes, idk. It feels good to see a guy who didn’t heal the “right way.” Who mostly didn’t heal at all, just keeps the wound open because it’s easier that way.
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