Review: Season 3, Episode 7

Here we have what will quite probably be the longest episode of The Chaos Project. Ever. I thought the same thing about the Silver & Zero prequel, Zero Hour, which I decided didn’t need a strict maximum length due to its special nature. But then here I go making a regular episode almost 2500 words longer. It’s definitely not something I anticipated going into it. I wasn’t necessarily worried going into it that it would be too short, per se, just that I knew pretty well what was going to happen the second half, but was going in almost completely blind to the first half, so I had no idea how long or short it was going to end up. I had a pretty clear vision in mind for what White Arms society looks like, but I had no idea what parts of it would be relevant to show or explain, or how detailed those explanations would be. On the other side, while I did have a vision in mind for the scene of Luna training Shadow with his mental powers, I wasn’t sure how exactly I would lead into Shadow accepting that offer, or what exactly Luna’s argument would be for convincing him. So I just wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and suddenly I realized that I was 9500 words in (long enough to qualify as its own episode already) and the inciting incident hadn’t even happened yet. So from there, I rushed through everything that was left. The fight between Genesis and Saturn was shortened drastically, as was the fight between the Heralds and Gladius. A planned scene with Tails trying to talk to the Master System was cut out entirely. Sonic fighting his way out of the Dreamnet and across the battlefield was skipped over to get straight to him encountering the Manta. And even with all that, I still ended up at over 18,000 words. If I’d known going into this arc that it would end up this long, I would’ve absorbed a bit of material from part 1 and turned this whole thing into a 3-parter. But it’s too late for that now. I think it goes without saying that this extra length is also reason why this episode ended up being delayed by a week. I really wanted it out by the week of the anniversary/the release of Origins, but that proved simply impossible.

Length aside, I can also say that this might be one of my favorite episodes. Ever. Obviously there’s a lot of great episodes to choose from, and there’s going to be a lot more, but writing this one just brought me back to the good old days of Season 0, where I was telling more complete, well-rounded stories. In fact, these two episodes together were almost exactly the same length as a typical shorter Season 0 arc, about 30,000 words total. Significantly longer than my entire novelization of SA2, for a different comparison. Luna and Saturn may still feel like new characters after only two episodes, but technically, we’ve been on just as long of a journey with them as we were with Blacklight and Chaos in their respective introductions. Although, I suppose that’s technically not entirely true, given that our attention here was split between a lot more new characters than was typical back then. But back on topic, the things liked about this episode. I think my favorite part was the complex interplay between the character arcs of Shadow and Luna. Sure, maybe it’s a little on-the-nose for her secret backstory to be so similar to Shadow’s, but that similarity accomplished a lot. Throughout these episodes, despite their seeming friendliness, Luna and Saturn have been shown with all the typical indicators of firm villains. They spout plenty of talk about why their way is the right way, perhaps making a “good point,” but refusing to acknowledge the harm that’s done as a result, all combined with the seemingly undying love and support for their own kind, and disregard of others. Yet all this turns out to inspired by a backstory we’ve already seen before—one that was supposed to inspire a hero. This is as significant a realization to Shadow as it is to us. We’ve spent this time wondering how she can be defeated, but suddenly, there’s another way. And suddenly, that job is already done. Because all she needs to see to change her ways is that Shadow has done the same. Meanwhile, a sort of inverse is happening with Shadow. Over the course of these episodes, Shadow has been pushed down a darker path—doing whatever is necessary to return home — and all the while finding his interests aligned more and more closely to the villains’. It’s the reminder of what it is that he’s fighting for that puts him back on in the place he needed to be to support Luna in bringing her to that same place. I’m not sure how well the precariousness of that situation came across. When Luna was broken to her absolute core, a few wrong words from Shadow might have pushed her in the opposite direction—convincing her that he will never turn, and must be destroyed. But instead, he supported her. He reached out his hand, and she chose to take it. And the end result, I hope, is one of the strongest formations of a friendship I’ve ever been able to write.

Saturn, of course, is his own beast. I knew going into this episode that Luna would be getting the focus over Saturn, but given that, I’m still impressed with how Saturn was able to stand out on his own. In fact, in many ways, he probably ended up being the more interesting character of the two. The questionable conspiracy around Genesis’ identity is something I was thinking about going into the episode, but I wasn’t necessarily sure that it had a place in this particular episode. It turned out to be very helpful both for her and for Saturn. Doesn’t really help the fact that he was just sitting behind a door and making snarky comments for the whole first half of the episode, but that was also sort of a good thing. It showed who he is apart from the more stereotypical musclehead-wants-to-fight personality.

Black Rex, being a last-minute addition to the last episode, obviously wasn’t planned to exist in this one, but I think I squeezed it in well enough in spite of that. What proved a little more difficult was continuing Johnny and Seraph’s relationship, despite theoretically being planned a lot farther in advance. It simply needed to take a back seat to everything else that was happening, which made it difficult to progress in any meaningful way from where it was left off after their last episode. That lack of progress is going to make things more difficult next time, but it’s what I had to do.

Other than that, I don’t think I have much to say. The episode speaks for itself, I should hope. So, on to the trivia!

• This episode is the first in The Chaos Project to exclusively feature entirely unique locations—none appearing in any Sonic game, nor any previous episode (not counting Serpah’s ship or the Manta as a location, per se).
  • Though the outside of the Ebony Tower was seen in the last episode, the inside was not.
  • The area in which ship-to-ship combat between the Black and White Arms is happening is labeled as “Conflict Zone,” which sounds like a Sonic thing, but technically isn’t.
• Given this episode’s proximity to Sonic’s anniversary and the release of Sonic Origins, there are several numerical references thrown in here and there. For example, the case number used for Shadow’s criminal involvement with the Heralds breaks down as the release date of Sonic Origins, the number 31, and the initials SO. The number 31 alone comes up a number of times.
• Continuing the trend of alien planets being named after Sonic musicians, the planet near Orthan at the beginning of the episode is Tolkoi, named for Kenichi Tokoi, a composer and drummer who has worked frequently with both Senoue and Ohtani.
• The trend of other alien things being named after other SEGA references is continued as well.
  • The Dreamnet’s AI computer is called the Master System, named for the non-portable version of the Game Gear.
    • Tails notes the good news that the Master System didn’t kill him, referencing the “Tails dies” meme that originated with a theory about the bad ending of the Game Gear/Master System version of Sonic 2.
  • The bomb used to destroy Kaos is called Sage’s CD, named for the SEGA CD add-on to the Genesis/Mega Drive needed to play Sonic CD.
  • The Kaosian unit of measurement given for distance and time are the “gageyer” and the “exin,” named for the Game Gear and the 32X respectively. (Hence the 3.2 exins.)
    • It is reasonable to assume that “ga-” and “ex-” are prefixes to the base units of “geyer” and “in”. It was under consideration to also make use of the English prefix “pico-” as a reference to the SEGA Pico educational machine, but that wouldn’t have made much sense in this context.
• Various uses of numbers throughout the episode are intended to imply that the Kaosians use a base 6 number system, as many things seem to be thought of and organized in powers of 6. This is understandable, given the six fingers on their hands compared to our 10.
• The 36 districts on the White Dreamnet are all named after different shades of the color white, with a few exceptions. Scale District would be the equivalent of “skin color” in human context, referring to the particular shade of white seen on White Kaosian scales. Spectra District isn’t exactly a color, but the intention is to refer to “white light” in terms of a combination of all colors of light wavelength. The implication would be that they have their own dedicated word for that type of white, and “Spectra” is merely the closest we can get to an English translation.
• In discussion with Luna, Shadow references a previous faux family member he had in Blacklight. This reference was recommended by my editor (Yuni), but the wording I chose to use also references a review left on Impending Doom by a guest, suggesting that Shadow would have a reaction quite similar to this upon meeting “Eclipse”.
• White Genesis’ armor is designed to resemble a combination of standard Sonic box art decorations for both Mega Drive and Genesis—gridlines and colorful nonsense shapes.
  • Similarly, her throne is intended to look like a SEGA Genesis, sleek and black with no straight lines.
  • Also similarly, Sage’s CD looks like a SEGA CD. It is referred to has having hardware on the bottom that is meant to attach to some “platform” underneath it. This would specifically reference the American model of the console (if I remember correctly), as other models attach to the side of the Mega Drive, rather than the top of the Genesis.
• Upon giving Sonic the gem that he uses for his later Chaos Control, Genesis mentions that the gem is powered by the conflict between Light and Darkness. This refers to the war between the Black and White Arms in this context, but lines up with what we know about the Chaos Emeralds—that they derive their energy from the Earth, which in turn derives its energy from the cyclical conflict between Light and Dark Gaia.
• Upon confronting Genesis, Saturn declares his intent to replace her. This is, of course, a reference to the SEGA Saturn replacing the SEGA Genesis on the console market.
  • This confrontation is accompanied by a Saturn-accented version of the phrase “Welcome to the next level,” a well-known SEGA advertising slogan of the time.
• Luna’s friend is named “Toma the Orthani,” named for Tomoya Ohtani.
• At the end of his memory sequence, Shadow explains that the block on his mental powers came from the trauma that apparently came from him seeing into Maria’s mind when she died. This is intended to explain the slight discontinuities between SA2 and Shadow the Hedgehog, where in one, we see Maria actively launch Shadow away, yet in the other, we see that Shadow saw her being killed. It also explains the self-contained oddity of SA2, where the final version of Shadow’s flashback we see has Maria’s final words being spoken after Shadow has already been launched away.
• Shadow’s final advice for Luna to move on from tragedy is to “Never Turn Back,” the end credits theme of Shadow the Hedgehog.
• In the final confrontation with Black Gladius, his reaction is quite similar to Black Doom’s upon Shadow’s various betrayals, right down to several word-for-word quotes. Shadow responds to these with an ironic quote of his own, claiming that Gladius is boring him to death.
• In this same confrontation, the two primary types of Black Arms enemies missing from part 1 appeared by name, the Black Worms and Black Volts.
• Saturn the Skenouan’s immediate liking taken to Johnny is an odd sort of reference to the leading members of Crush 40, Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli.
• White Genesis’ secret name, White Sage, appears to be shared with the recently-revealed antagonist of Sonic Frontiers, the AI girl named SAGE. This episode was completed less than 24 hours before that character was officially revealed, so I can confirm that this was a coincidence. That being said, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some sort of connection made in the future…

That’s all for trivia, but speaking of Frontiers, now is the time to talk about some news that was footnoted at the end of this episode. As of this day, as was the case almost exactly 6 years ago for Forces, The Chaos Project is officially on Sonic Frontiers break. Simply put, I’ve decided that right here is the optimal place to freeze the plot in order to have the best chance at integrating Frontiers into the future of the story in a meaningful way. As you may remember, doing this last time resulted in what we now know as the Forces of Chaos arc in Season 0. Imagine if I was halfway through that arc when Forces came out, and it had gone without the Forces-related content for all that time. It wouldn’t have made sense to squeeze it randomly into the second half while ignoring it in the first. It would have been a much duller story, wouldn’t you say? It was the right decision then, and I know that the same is true now. Thus, this will be the last numbered episode of The Chaos Project to come out until, at the soonest, the as-yet unannounced release date of Frontiers (most likely late November or early December). But until then, we still have plenty to look forward to, starting with part 2 of my discussion with Blacklight about the recent stream of Sonic news. From there, we have the continuation (possibly the entire remainder and conclusion) of Silver & Zero, as well as a potential tie-in special to Sonic Prime. With the extra time I’ll have instead of writing, we may see some other bonus content popping up as well, so stay tuned!

-And until next time, remember to live and learn every day!

Review: Season 3, Episode 6

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.