I know I say it a lot, but we have another very early episode idea here. In fact, as far as early episode plans go, this one was quite possibly the most thoroughly planned and scripted out of any of them—planned and scripted to last the length of a standard episode back in Season 0: less than half of the average these days. In TV terms, half an hour rather than an hour. So yeah, with this episode basically being a done deal in my mind, I wasn’t too concerned about ironing out the details as the time to actually write it approached. Then I sat down to start writing and realized that I only had half an episode planned out. In this original script, there would have been no final chase sequence, no gauntlet of boss fights. Black Gladius would’ve been waiting for Shadow right where the Black Manta landed, and that would’ve been the cliffhanger ending of the episode. Figuring out what to put in that space turned out to be simple enough, however. I just had to ask myself what would’ve been missing otherwise. The base of the episode already gave us an action-focused introduction to the character and power set of Luna, but Saturn didn’t have the same, even though, him being the fighter of the two, him getting something like that was probably more important. To give them a reason to fight, Shadow needed to escape and be chased down. Using that escape sequence to cram in a quick and intense look at this alien planet, as well as the full gamut of Shadow the Hedgehog enemies and weapons, was a natural conclusion. After all, this being advertised as the “Black Arms Season,” we sure haven’t seen much of them so far. Why not load them up here? Regardless, I was still figuring that wasn’t quite enough in length terms. The Black Rex fight was the last piece that was needed, and I decided on that both to follow up on promise made in S3 E3 Impending Doom that the Black Beasts were effectively a fourth Black Kaosian house that didn’t have its own herald to be represented as a character, and also to lead into some new ideas for next episode, adding some greater context to the coming explanation of why Shadow is wanted here in the first place. Also, it didn’t hurt to give a clear reason behind Shadow being tired out for his Saturn fight. I wanted to show, in a general sense, that Shadow, Luna, and Saturn are all on a very roughly equal power level—but in the end, Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form and a lot more adaptable in combat than them, putting him a step ahead.
Black Rex’s design philosophy was simple enough—he’s really just meant to be a sort of superevolved Black Bull. Black Bull births Black Wings? Black Rex births the larger and more powerful Black Hawks. Black Bull is fat with stubby wings? Black Rex is muscular with big dragon wings. Black Bull is a master of land and air? Black Rex adds sea to the mix. Despite being of a form that’s probably a bit more aesthetically pleasing than Black Bull, Black Rex is designed to look a bit more obviously like a genetic experiment, looking like a reptile, an insect, and an aquatic species all at once. And of course, Shadow apparently now has a pet chimera dragon, so that’s cool.
As far as character crafting goes, Luna and Saturn are of course the more interesting story here. Of course, as already pointed out by a reviewer, the elephant in the room is Archie Sonic’s Eclipse the Darkling. I already talked about this in the review for Impending Doom, but now we’re getting a much closer look at the similarities between these ideas, right down to the moon-themed name in Luna’s case. In a way, however, Luna and Saturn are effectively opposites to Eclipse. Eclipse, in the end, is an alien copy of/thematic opposite to Shadow. Luna and Saturn are originals—not the backup plan, but the true plan all along. They’re hybrids, just like Shadow. They have their own histories and motivations which are independent of the Black Arms. In the end, however, they do share the same purpose of, to a varying degree, humanizing the Black Arms, and giving them a face that isn’t just “evil bad guy”.
With that acknowledgement out of the way, let’s talk about the characters themselves. They’re in a pretty unique situation, in Chaos Project terms. They’re the first “major” “Sonic-style” OCs to be introduced to the universe since Season 0. That definition is a little fuzzy with them having only been featured in one episode so far, but we can take that to mean, “I made a sprite for them, and they’re not human.” The important point is that a lot more effort than average went into their creation. Design wise, of course, they had to fall within the Black Arms standard of red on black color schemes, but from there, the goal was to make the two of them quite distinct from one another. Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that Shadow, Saturn, and Luna fall quite nicely into the standard Sonic Speed-Power-Fly categories, suggesting that was actually the plan of the Black Arms to create a well-balanced Heroes-style team. To add to that idea of a diverse trio, a different Order of animal was chosen for each one—mammal, reptile, and avian. Of course, as hybrids, they all have a little pseudo-insectoid-reptile in them, and as Sonic characters, they all have an animoid body type—although, Saturn definitely pushes that a bit, looking in musculature more like a middleground between a Black Warrior and a Black Oak. In general, I wanted to craft Saturn as something as thoroughly alien as I could imagine, within those recognizable constraints. That would serve as a contrast against the far more familiar form of Luna. They would appear to be a very odd duo with little in common, and yet they would show that they synergize well together. Their powers, of course, play heavily into that. It makes sense that their powers would synergize, given that their powers are pretty much a two-way split of Black Doom’s original power set. Luna gets his mental powers—telepathy, telekinesis, mind control, and the creation of illusions—while Saturn gets his physical powers—Meteor Rain, Swift Strike, Chaos Control, and, although it wasn’t shown here, presumably the fire wave attack as well. Of course, I couldn’t have him breathe fire like Devil Doom given the lack of a mouth, but in lieu of that, I gave him a different power to push him another step up both as a fighter and as something uniquely alien. Here on Earth, many reptile species have fluid sacs in their throats, generally for storing venom. The native Skenouan species presumably has the same, but Saturn, being a uniquely engineered life form, was modified to produce and store the red slime instead, giving him instant access to any Black Arms weapon of his choosing. Although we’ve only scratched the surface so far, the implication is that, as an equivalent to this extra power of Saturn’s, Luna has a mind which is far more powerful than Black Doom’s. After all, she was able to compel Shadow to take actions against his will where Black Doom was not.
As far as general comments go for this episode, I’d like to express again how much fun it is to really dive head-first into the unique elements brought in by a particular Sonic game like this. Sure, I use references and locations from lots of Sonic games all the time, but those sorts of things always focus on finding a throughline between the games, pointing out what’s similar between them, rather than what’s different. Working with the Black Arms themselves and the variety of weapons they use, designing a new location inspired by the visual uniqueness of the Black Comet, that sort of thing is a rare treat when writing.
And I think the rest will have to wait until part 2. So for now, on to the trivia!
- This episode’s title, “Arms Race,” refers to a rapid escalation of military might between two warring or potentially warring powers. In this case, of course, it refers quite literally to the Black Arms and the White Arms entering into such a conflict.
- This so-called arms race was already referred to as such by White Seraph in Impending Doom.
- An alternate consideration for this episode’s title would have been “Black Writings,” where the follow-up episode, instead of being a part two, would have been “All of Me.” These are lyrics from the theme song of Shadow the Hedgehog, “I Am… All of Me.”
- The original line, “Black writings on the wall,” refers to the term of phrase “The writing’s on the wall,” meaning that the outcome of the current circumstance has already been predicted, and is now unavoidable. Change that to “black” writings, and it is now specifically a dark or destructive prophecy. Obviously, “All of Me” would suggest that someone is discovering or showing all of themselves in a way that was hidden before. I leave it to you to speculate what that might mean…
- The following locations from previous Sonic games were shown or mentioned in this episode:
- The Doom (Shadow the Hedgehog, via dream)
- Westopolis (Shadow the Hedgehog, via simulation)
- Digital Circuit (Shadow the Hedgehog, mentioned)
- Meta Junglira Zone (Sonic Triple Trouble)
- This is the first location from Triple Trouble, or from any Game Gear Sonic title, to be featured in The Chaos Project. It was intentionally chosen as a place that would be on the obscure side, and therefore presumably pretty isolated and hard to find. Also, the general concept of a jungle or forest location was chosen before Meta Junglira specifically was applied to it.
- Black Comet/Final Haunt (Shadow the Hedgehog, visually referenced and mentioned in narration)
- As established in Impending Doom, space is apparently filled with lots of Sonic/SEGA references. We already had White Genesis and the White Dreamnet, but we now have the following added to that:
- Veimue, the generic name for a White Arms scoutship, which gathers, stores, and communicates information to the White Dreamnet, would be pronounced quite similarly to “VMU,” the Dreamcast Virtual Memory Unit (basically just a memory card/storage drive with a screen and a couple buttons). These ships are intended to visually resemble the VMU as well, with a black docking port where the memory card would plug in, and a large windshield to represent the screen.
- Saturn the Skenouan, named for the SEGA console to come between the Genesis and the Dreamcast.
- The method of faster-than-light travel shared by the Black and White Arms is called Mega Warp, induced by an engine called the Mega Drive, sharing a name with the non-American version of the SEGA Genesis.
- Shadow’s initial rejection of the pistol given to him by Johnny is meant to be contrasted against his eventual intentional use of the Shadow Rifle, showing how his mindset seems to revert as he is dragged back into the Black Arms conflict. In a more general sense, this is meant to subtly demonstrate a sort of commentary on the nature of guns and Shadow’s over all character in the original Shadow the Hedgehog game. We’re suggesting here that while, yes, the guns and the swearing certainly seemed out of the norm for Shadow’s character, that didn’t stem from any sort of writing or presentation issue. Shadow in that game was a man pushed to the absolute limits of his patience and his sanity, and his response was justifiably aggressive. Here, we see Shadow being pushed back in that same direction for the first time since then, and his reaction is understandably similar.
- The Eggshelter’s new simulation area is dubbed the “Virtron” room. Knowledgeable readers might better recognize the word “Valtron,” which was given as a prototype name for the Phantom Ruby in a leaked beta script of Sonic Forces. Although the script was in English, it is assumed that Valtron was an Engrish mistranscription, intended to combine the term “virtual” with “tron” to describe a machine that creates virtual reality. This was, of course, before Sonic Mania came in and turned it into a naturally-occurring object. Regardless, I figured the term fit as well here as it would anywhere.
- Tails describes the Virtron room as resembling the Holodeck from “Chao in Space Next Gen.” As with all things pertaining to Chao in Space, this reference is one part Sonic and one part Star Wars/Trek. In this case, the Holodeck is a solid hologram simulation room from Star Trek: The Next Generation, so the Chao in Space equivalent is pretty spot-on. Of course, Chao in Space is a movie franchise, and Star Trek TNG is a TV series, so that’s where the Sonic part comes in. Though it isn’t stated in this episode, Chao in Space Next Gen is intended to be the 6th movie in the franchise, known colloquially to some as Cha’06. Compare Sonic ’06, also known to some as Sonic Next Gen.
- This episode shows for the first time that the training program Shadow underwent in the flashbacks of Arrival are, in-universe, referred to as an Expert course, as is the case in the game on which those events are based.
- The design of the Black Manta is based on that of the Black Tank seen in Lethal Highway. Presumably, this ship is a little bit bigger, and has a clear opening in the back. Its shields are stated to work in the same way they did in that level, beginning at blue, and reducing to green after taking on some damage. Presumably, there is also a yellow and red phase before the shields go down completely.
- The concept of a bioship, where all controls and other interior amenities grow straight out of the interior by psychic command of the operator bears a strong resemblance to the DC Comics universe, particularly the interpretation seen in the TV series Young Justice in regards to Miss Martian’s “Ship”. Coincidentally, early seasons of Young Justice also prominently feature a character named “Black Manta.” The name of this ship is unrelated, instead meant to refer to the manta-like shape of the ship and Black Tank it’s based on.
- Over the course of the episode, every time of Black Arms enemy from Shadow the Hedgehog is seen, with the exceptions of the Black Worm and the Black Volt variant of Black Hawk. In both cases, although the creature does not appear, its primary weapon, the Worm Shooter, is used as an integrated part of the Black Manta’s weapons system. The Black Volt is basically just an armed Black Hawk, so in technical terms, the species was still shown. Although the same can’t be said about the Black Worm, we do see a different kind of Black Alien worm, used as binding chains for the prisoners, which could perhaps be a larval form of the Black Worms we already know.
- Similarly, every type of Black Arms weapon is used at some point during the episode, with the exceptions of the Splitter gun, which fires a bouncing disc-like projectile not unlike the Swift Strike, the Big Barrel cannon, the Black Barrel gun, which shoots a circular wave-like projectile, the Vacuum Pod suction weapon, and, arguably, the Satellite Gun, which calls on the strike of an orbital laser.
- Shadow’s use of the Shadow Rifle is, of course, a reference to the postgame-exclusive Shadow the Hedgehog weapon which is capable of one-shotting every enemy in the game. It’s a unique weapon in that it isn’t clearly identifiable as a Black Arms weapon or a human weapon. It has design philosophies of both, with personalized style for Shadow on top of it. The implication with this episode is that the use of this weapon in the game is not canon, but that Shadow invented the weapon at this moment.
- This is the first instance we’ve seen of Shadow using his weapon creation powers since they were introduced at the end of the Black Cloak arc. It was a convenient coincidence (though not exactly an unlikely one, given the context) that the Shadow Rifle naturally bears the mark of the Black Cloak, giving a hint to readers of where they need to look if they don’t remember this power.
- During his swordfight with Saturn, Shadow briefly flips his blade into a reverse grip, matching the fighting style of his Arthurian counterpart Sir Lancelot.
- The creature used as the “third eye” of Black Gladius is referred to as “Eye of Gladius” rather than “Gladius’ Eye,” as would be consistent with Doom’s Eye, because the awkward trailing-s-apostrophe would be awkward to write over and over again.
- Its design is based on an octopus to differentiate it from the Doom’s Eye starfish.
- At the end of the episode, Tails is excited by the prospect of experiencing faster-than-light travel. Sonic casually reminds him that this is nothing new—after all, they’ve been using Chaos Control for years. However, this is also an acknowledgement of the fact that Team Sonic Racing, which is at least ambiguously canon at this point, also featured travel on a spaceship between distant planets. Which…actually calls into question how Eggman pulled all of the Wisp planets into Earth orbit in the first place without an FTL method of his own, but that’s a Colors problem, which I generally tend to ignore.
The Chaos Project: Sonic the Hedgehog 