Review: Season 3, Episode 5

Yeah, this one probably requires some extra explanation, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not exactly like this is the first time I’ve tried to canonize Boom to the main series. After all, we’ve already had Lyric appearing as the main antagonist of S2 E13 Non-Zero Chance, and Dave the Intern playing a role in S2 E16 Hate That Hedgehog. What makes this episode unique is that it’s the first time I’ve really indicated that anything resembling the present-day Boom world still exists in our present-day. Dave and Comedy Chimp alone could be considered coincidences, and Lyric could be something that only exists in the past. but here we’re actually kinda sorta saying that the Boom games are almost sort of canon. Obviously not actually canon, because Sonic and the gang met Sticks in Rise of Lyric and it didn’t go over anything like this. But we are claiming now that the setting, characters, and historical context in the canon world are all pretty much identical to the Boom world. Of course, if you’ve read In the Shadow of Time, you’d know that I’ve already made that exact claim from the opposite perspective—claiming that the events of Shadow the Hedgehog and earlier are canon to the Boom universe. Of course the real question is why. And that comes down to Sticks.

Simply put, Sticks is a good character. Appealing design, memorable personality, and she fills a niche that Sonic’s otherwise diverse cast is lacking. In debating what the primary cast of The Chaos Project would be, Sticks was definitely on the shortlist from the outset. Of course, I couldn’t just have her exist as a canon character—after all, she’s not a canon character. (Not yet, anyways. Fingers crossed that SEGA doesn’t decide to revive her now, I guess.) So she had to get a new introduction, and that’s how the base ideas for this episode began to form even before I’d made the final decision on whether or not I would end up using her at all. The big debate against it, of course, was the possibility of confusing readers. The last thing that I want is for someone to think that this is some weird fanfic-y hybrid universe—it would defeat the purpose of this series trying so hard exist very specifically in the standard game canon. There’s also the lingering question of if Sticks might just be too weird to take seriously as a character. But I quickly decided that I wasn’t going to let something like that stop me—after all, if the whole Sonic cast gets parodied, flattened versions of their characters for Boom, Sticks would naturally get something a little more three-dimensional for her canon debut. More on that later.

Turning a Boom character into a canon character definitely brought its own set of challenges. Going the other direction, we see that when a canon character is turned into a Boom character, there is a certain foundation you’re expected to understand from the canon, which Boom proceeds to twist and joke off of. So, taking Sticks into canon, we would need to see that same shared foundation, giving her a personality that can present itself in a logical way that could be twisted into more random humor for Boom. Of course, it’s also important that the character is still recognizable as the same person, or the entire purpose of using the character is defeated. My goal, as writing began, was to start off with something that is instantly recognizable as a typical Sticks, and subtly build into a more cohesive character from there. She’s still the same mistrusting, superstitious conspiracy theorist we’ve always known. But as time goes on, you may start to notice where the differences lie. At its root, it comes down to logic—something that Boom Sticks generally lacks, yet this new canon Sticks holds to impressively. You would never hear CP-Sticks say anything like “my breakfast is plotting to kill me” or “they’re replacing my houseplants with violins.” But you might hear “take an antitoxin in case there’s poison in the food” or “the aliens are stealing our plants,” because these are things she’s actually observed as realistic possibilities, however ridiculous they may sound. My rule of thumb throughout the episode was “All conspiracy theories must be at least 25% rooted in reality.” There might even be a case or two where she gave a theory based on evidence that we may not learn until a future episode. It was also a plan I had in mind that some of her primary character traits would be switched around a bit. Canon Sonic is a hero first and a free spirit second, but Boom reverses that, making interruptions to his leisure time one of his primary motivators. Canon Knuckles is a dedicated guardian first and a gullible brawn second, but Boom reverses that, making him absurdly buff and completely lacking in intelligence. I wanted to do something similar with Sticks, putting her wild girl skills and mistrust of others at the forefront while dialing back the superstition and conspiracy theories, but I don’t think that ended up carrying through quite as well as I’d hoped. Even if there wasn’t quite a reversal, I still feel the result was a much better balance of these traits than Boom ever had to offer.

Of course, the root of all these changes was addressed in the episode’s plot quite thoroughly.  It was actually quite nice how things worked out—I’ve already established “the Ancients” as the humans who lived before Zero’s time, but relative to the context of Boom, these Ancients are quite unknown in modern times. The question of why no one would know is a fair one. As what is by far the most reasonable Boom character to introduce the canon world to these ideas, Sticks provided our answer while simultaneously providing an excellent motivator for the personality we already know she has. It’s a conspiracy, and she made an argument for that which was hard to deny. And if the biggest conspiracy in the history of the world turns out to be true, why wouldn’t she be inclined to assume others are as well? So that motivates the conspiracy theories, but not so much the distrust. That’s where Stones came in. It’s a fairly straightforward narrative—straightforward enough that I never even had to specify what exactly he was to her. Teacher? Sibling? Boyfriend? The truth is, it doesn’t even matter. He was the only important person in her life, and his loss is what left her with the impression that trust was more trouble than it was worth. I also never specified his species, but I do, at least, assume that he was also a Badger.

So, did this Stones story also happen in the Boom universe? Well, I’d be inclined to say no. After all, he died in the effort to prove the existence of the Ancients, who are already known to exist in the Boom universe. It’s possible that he still existed, and that something still happened to him, it just wouldn’t be anything that had quite the same symbolic meaning to Sticks. Maybe that’s why Sticks has such a relatively easy time trusting Team Sonic in the Boom world, at least compared to what we see in this episode.

The other aspect to converting Sticks to the canon was character design. Luckily, that job was done for me. The design seen in the episode pretty much looked like artwork A below:

We have a little bit more of a serious face, a charm on the neck that gives a little bit more of a wild, tribal/spiritualistic vibe, and of course, sports tape. I was amused by the ironic notion of giving back sports tape to the only Boom character who didn’t have any in Boom when pulling them out of Boom. Plus, as we’ve seen plenty of times before, I like making use of scrapped concept art where possible. That’s all it really comes down to.

That just about covers the Sticks story, but she was hardly the only character in use here. In this episode, we saw Tails getting what is effectively the resolution to the character arc he’s been on since Season 1. It isn’t necessarily that anything about his character changed in this particular episode, just that we’re getting a full look at the payoff on the rift that’s been growing between him and Sonic, and what seems to be the final outcome of his growth into an individual. My hope is that it was as cathartic to read as it was to write, seeing Sonic and Tails finally talk out their problems and make up like normal people. Certainly, I’ve had readers express the hope that it would happen by now. The trick was making sure that getting these brothers back together didn’t come at the cost of any character reversion on Tails’ part. That’s sort of what the point of this episode turned out to be. Tails may be back to a place where he is trusted and forgiven, but he remains a person who confidently makes choices for what he sees as the greater good. Truth be told, that wasn’t necessarily part of the original plan though. It wasn’t until I wrote Sonic saying the phrase “every villain is the hero of their own story” that I realized… “This episode would be a lot better if Tails turned out to be the quote-unquote villain.” The original plot would’ve been a lot more like the red herring plot turned out to be. Eggman would’ve actually been on the island in the active process of uncovering more Ancient technology to use for himself. The technology jamming aspect probably wouldn’t have been a thing. Sonic and Tails probably would’ve been independently assuming the other is either dead or not on the island anymore, and so their focuses would’ve each been on finding and stopping Eggman, only to accidentally meet and save each other on the battlefield. That would’ve freed up some more plot focus for Sticks. In fact, before this episode’s chronological placement was decided, it wouldn’t have had a Tails sub-plot at all. It was only because the episode was placed here that it had to start with that long make-up conversation between Sonic and Tails, which was what mandated having a resolution to the Tails plot at the end. Without that, this certainly would’ve turned out as a far more predictable, by-the-numbers, filler-esque episode, so I think everything worked out for the best.

Further from there, it was not necessarily part of the original plan to have Eggman appear. The episode was first written without the usual opening teaser, mostly because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I originally had it in mind that the Sonic-Tails conversation would be the opening teaser itself…or rather, it would be the beginning of it, and cut to the title card when they crash (or maybe even when Sticks announces herself). Then that scene ended up taking 4 pages, so that was a no. Anyways, I got all the way to Sonic confronting Tails at the end before I was finally forced to face the question: “How exactly would Tails be so certain that Eggman is here?” It was only then that I came up with MAIA’s role in the episode, so I immediately went back to write her and Eggman into the opening. It made sense, seeing as I already introduced MAIA for no apparent reason back in Non-Zero Chance without any real idea of if or when she might be used. The one regret I’m left with is the question of if using both MAIA and Zooey for a theoretically similar role for Tails was just too overcomplicated.

I think that covers all the major points I had in mind, so now it’s on to the trivia!

• This episode’s title, “Bygones,” has a triple meaning. As mentioned in the episode, the primary setting is Bygone Island. The plot is driven by the relics of a bygone era that are presumably the island’s namesake. But most importantly, the purpose this episode serves in the greater plot of The Chaos Project is to get Sonic and Tails back together as they “let bygones be bygones,” so to speak.
  • Had this episode not had such a focus on the relationship between Sonic and Tails, an alternative title under consideration would have been “Sticks and Stones.” (Keeping in mind that this was before “Stones” was thought of as a character.) The joke being that the episode is about Sonic breaking his bones, and Sticks being involved.
• This episode featured the first appearance of Emerald Hill Zone since the original Rebel Camp Alpha was abandoned in S2 E10 Heads or Tails.
• Multiple locations from the Sonic Boom series were featured or mentioned in this episode.
  • A facility which is strongly implied to be the Abandoned Research Facility level from Rise of Lyric.
    • The original level was not set on Bygone Island, but instead near Cliff’s Excavation Site on the mainland. Technically, it is possible that the same holds true in this episode, as it is never specified that the technology disruption field covers only the island. However, that would require Eggman to be somehow transported to the island after the opening scene of the episode. More likely, this is an alternate-timeline variation of the same facility which was built on the island.
  • Sticks’ Burrow from the TV show.
  • The Unnamed Village, originally from Rise of Lyric, later renamed to Hedgehog Village in the show.
  • A cave entrance which served multiple purposes in the TV show, perhaps most notably in the episode “Mech Suits Me.”
  • Also mentioned is an underwater tunnel which connects to the mainland. This could be referring to certain areas of the Ocean Purification Plant level from Rise of Lyric.
• Many characters from Sonic Boom are also seen in this episode. Apart from Sticks and MAIA, we have:
  • Lady Walrus and her baby, recurring gag characters from the TV show.
  • Zooey the Fox, Tails’ TV show girlfriend.
  • Mayor Fink, originally from RoL, recurring in the show.
  • Fastidious Beaver, originally from Rol, a recurring gag character in the show.
  • Perci the Bandicoot, a semi-important character from RoL who also makes a few appearances in the show.
  • Comedy Chimp, a show-original character who was already CP-canonized by reference in Hate That Hedgehog.
  • Soar the Eagle, a show-original character making his CP debut.
  • Dave the Intern, a frequently recurring show character who already appeared directly in Hate That Hedgehog.
  • An army of unspecified Lyric robots, most likely consisting primarily of Gatling Elites, already seen in Non-Zero Chance.
  • A single full-sized Sentinel robot, most likely the same one seen under construction in Non-Zero Chance (which in turn is the same one scaled in the Lyric’s Weapon Facility level of RoL).
• For the most part, all characters listed above have their original personalities and designs left unchanged from their original appearances. Redesigning them for the canon wasn’t worth the effort.
• The members of the new Rebel Camp Delta were chosen as a fairly balanced set of representatives for both game-original and show-original characters, using the most memorable appropriate choices from each. For the game-original characters, “memorable” generally ended up meaning “survived the transition to the show.”
• This episode is the first in which the Eggshelter is neither seen nor mentioned since its introduction in S2 E12 Deep Cut (though it’s only mentioned by technicality as the IOPS in Hate That Hedgehog.)
• In the opening scene of the episode, Eggman mentions how it “feels good to get out once in a while,” which is an acknowledgement of the fact that Eggman is very rarely seen in-person in this series.
• Throughout the episode, events are referenced regarding Zero and Gregor defeating Lyric in the ancient past. Although these events have not been seen, it is safe to assume that this will happen some time in Zero’s fairly near future. Spoiler alert for Silver & Zero that he doesn’t die, I guess.
  • In this timeline, Zero and Gregor seem to fill the same role that Sonic and Tails did when travelling to the past in the events of RoL. This could be interpreted as the potential timeline split that causes the Boom Universe in the first place—if Sonic and Tails go back in time (perhaps even during the events of this episode), a self-sustaining Boom time loop is created. If they don’t, Zero and Gregor pick up the slack (though are apparently too late to save the Ancients that were living on Bygone Island) and The Chaos Project happens instead.
• MAIA quotes her own lines from Rise of Lyric throughout the episode.
• Sonic and Tails’ “cursed beach day” was first brought up in S0 E8 Race Against Time Part 2. Attempts to go through with it failed in S0 E25 Light and Dark Part 2, S1 E7 The Bigger They Come, and S2 E10 Heads or Tails, making this one of the longest-running sub-plots to exist in this series.
• This marks the third time in The Chaos Project that one of Tails’ planes has been destroyed in the same episode/arc in which it was introduced, the last time being the Tornado Mach 2 in S1 E15 In Too Deep. The original Mach Tornado, introduced in S0 E26 Infinite Possibilities and destroyed in Crisis of Chaos Part 2, was the only model to last more than a day or two (though the classic Tornado seen and destroyed in the Dawn of Chaos arc was probably around for a while before that). Maybe it’s not the beach that’s cursed…
  • This is, of course, a reference to Sonic Adventure, where Tails crashes not one plane, not two planes, but three.
• Throughout the episode, Sticks has Sonic drink a juice blend of onions, bananas, and pickles. A similar blend was given by a guru to Aang in an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This was an accidental coincidence that came about when I tried to form a list of the most random collection of natural ingredients I could think of, but I was aware of it when writing. There probably was some sort of unconscious inspiration there.
• Among the many accusations Sticks makes against Sonic is that he is a Froglodyte in disguise. The Froglodytes are a recurring race in the Boom TV show, trapped in an underground cave by Sticks. Later in the episode, Sticks also mentions that there may be a problem if the robots open the secret room in the back of her burrow, which would presumably be the entrance to the Froglodyte cave. To be fair, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Froglodytes are canon, just that Sticks thinks they are.
• Sticks’ chalk depiction of Sonic as a cyborg also appears to include a drawing of Cow Bot for no apparent reason. In another timeline, that part of the theory might have panned out a bit better…
• In theorizing how the situation might have ended up as it did, Sticks comes up with several ideas which wouldn’t be too surprising to see in a fictional drama like this one.
  • Her first theory, that Sonic might actually be trapped in a simulation, was something I was certain I’d heard before, though I had trouble remembering exactly where. Of course, shows like Star Trek involve a pretty sizable number of “it’s just a simulation” episodes, but the more specific details of the protagonist crashing on an island and being helped back to health by a friendly female local, only to realize that he was actually captured by an enemy and trapped in a simulation sounded very specifically familiar from something else. Finally, I remembered the episode from an old cartoon from my childhood—Codename: Kids Next Door. That’s certainly not something I ever expected to be referencing. Regardless, it’s a real plot that someone else did come up with, so Sticks’ theory isn’t too outlandish in that regard.
    • In trying to justify this theory, Sticks references the “classical form of philosophical skepticism.” The wording used to describe this theory was actually taken from Peter Unger’s “Ignorance,” a scholarly work that I actually studied in college philosophy class. It’s a very real theory. In the end, she boils it down to “For all we know, our lives could just be some kid’s video game,” which, technically speaking, is 100% the truth for her and Sonic. Dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall there.
  • Stick’s second theory, that she is actually maliciously responsible for holding Sonic there, actually is a plot from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the episode, Captain Picard crashes on an alien planet and is treated by a girl there, who tries to convince him that he is injured and unable to leave in order to force him to fall in love with her. As Sticks says, it’s what the writers of a weird TV show would do, and that’s technically what I am, so the seemingly ridiculous theory is once again actually shockingly sound.
  • Sticks also talks about how “the aliens are stealing our plants,” which, as usual, sounds ridiculous on the surface, but implies that she actually saw White Seraph performing her Xenobiologist duties a short time before the events of S3 E3 Impending Doom.
• As Sonic heals over the course of the episode, it his revealed that his appearance is varying closer and closer to that of his Sonic Boom design—though his usual scarf is used as a sling to hold down his unusable robot hand. Similarly, Tails also takes on his Boom outfit with additional goggles and toolbelt, though with Eggman/Lyric’s robot control device added to his arm on top of that. These designs are both ditched at the end of the episode.
  • This episode confirms what was already implied in the first Sonic Movie Special, Fast Friends—that Sonic’s arms would always be blue if he didn’t shave them. It’s basically the equivalent of him growing a beard, which is kind of funny to think about.
    • (What’s that you ask? Why do I say “the first special” when there’s only one of them? Take a wild guess at what I’m working on right this minute. Or just skip to next week’s post if you’re reading this in the future.)
• On the way to village, Sticks brings up a legend about a curse-breaking Marmoset. This references a character and plot of the Boom episode, “Curse of the Cross-Eyed Moose.”
• Sticks says that Stones died in a collapsing mine. Given that this is a different timeline, this could potentially refer to the same mine in Cliff’s Excavation Site which collapses early in the events of Rise of Lyric.
• In describing her adventures with Stones, Sticks mentions that they collected shiny little trinkets and everyday objects that were much to old to be anything other than evidence of the Ancients. This is a reference to Sticks’ limited role in Rise of Lyric, where she enlists your help in collecting “Shinies” matching that exact description, without any indicator as to what she wants them for.
• Sonic’s “character arc” in this episode is effectively spent “rejecting the Boom premise,” so to speak. The idea is planted in his head that his life would be easier if he simply retired—built a nice beachfront house, and only ever did hero work when it happened to be convenient for him. We’re teased with this idea that he’s close to actually literally turning into Boom Sonic, and recovering with Sticks, he’s given a taste of what that would be like. Thanks in part to Sticks, however, he rejects the notion that one can simply run away to a place where nothing matters. This rejection is reiterated when he tears off the sling/scarf. (Brown is so not his color.)
• Sticks’ final theory about Sonic is that he is the living reincarnation of the wizard who defeated Lyric—that being a relatively accurate description of Sonic’s relationship with Zero. She goes on further to suggest that this would make a him a cult leader. As far as we’re aware, that part of the theory is nonsense…but Sticks’ theories are rarely so far off from the truth…
• Apparently, following the events of this episode, Sonic has now canonically had “the talk” with Tails. Isn’t that fun?
• The introduction of Mayor Fink and Fastidious Beaver references both of them as election candidates, which, surprisingly, is a reference to Rise of Lyric, and not the TV show.
• EDIT: Following the release of Sonic Frontiers, this episode received a slight retcon, adjusting the introduction of “the Ancients” to make it clear that it’s a different group than the one introduced in that game.

There’s probably more that I missed, but frankly, I’m already way behind on writing the next episode, so I’m going to cut things off here.

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

Review: Season 3, Episode 3

So this was…a complicated episode to write. Like many recent episodes, it’s a story that I’ve been looking forward to telling for a very long time. But how exactly I would tell it is another issue. In the earliest pre-planning phases, the assumption was that this episode, like S1 E11 Condition Extreme, would derive its drama almost entirely from the medical emergency taking place. Rather than Johnny already being deathly ill, Seraph would have some other reason to be scanning everyone in the Rebellion one by one, and eventually finding that Johnny is the only one in imminent danger. That obviously means that the context of Johnny being treated would’ve been very different, Seraph’s story would already have been at least mostly told, so the two of them would’ve had a lot more alone time together. That probably would’ve been better for the “romance” aspect of this episode, but the way this episode ended was problematic as it was, focusing on storytime for nearly the entire second half. If the story had already been told, any sense of interest left in the plot of the episode would be pretty much gone, and it was clear to me that “oh no Johnny’s sick let’s heal him” would not be enough drama to make up for that. Also of note is that, at this early phase in the planning, heavy consideration was being given to having the Rebellion still split up following the events of Civil War at this point, such that it would take the alien visitor and the potential threats to everyone’s lives to get them all back on speaking terms for the first time after their falling out. In that hypothetical plotline, S3 E2 Agent Black probably wouldn’t have existed at all (some of its elements might have carried back into part 1), this would’ve been episode 2, and all that drama would’ve been what kept this episode going. But, as planning for the Civil War plot reached more detailed phases, I decided that Civil War required a far more direct, cohesive, and wholesome ending. If you can call it that.

The Civil War arc obviously took mega priority over this more random early season episode, so I was left to pick up the pieces here once that was set in stone. Seraph’s origin and her medical role was, as mentioned, planned far in advance, but the circumstances of Shadow/Shadow’s Civil War team/the Rebellion as a whole meeting her for the first time was a little bit more…nebulous. As was what she was generally capable of. I knew I wanted her to attack Shadow on sight, and have her stopped by Johnny stepping in to defend him. That sounded like a two minute scene at best. But, now with the need to add action/drama back into the mix, this felt like the right place to do it. I knew that three things needed to happen here. 1: As our first look at the White Arms, she needed to represent the absolute opposite of the biological everything that the Black Arms are tied to. 2: To give this scene the length, action, and drama that it needed, she needed to not only hold her own, but downright outclass Shadow, at least in his surprised/off-his-game state. 3: To lead into Johnny having a crush on her, her trained fighting skills needed to shine through as much if not more than the power of her technology. So, taking all of this into account, I needed a highly futuristic alien technology that is hypothetically capable of taking down almost any foe, regardless of power level, yet also seamlessly and organically integrates with the user’s action movie–oriented skills. My thoughts went to one place. Samus Aran, Space Warrior and protagonist of Nintendo’s Metroid franchise.

Now, I’ve been a fan of the Metroid series for quite some time, and I’d like to state for the record that this episode’s proximity to the recent release of Metroid Dread is a complete coincidence. The choice to give Seraph a Samus-style power armor was storyboarded out on (virtual) paper in December of last year, 6 months before Dread was announced to exist, and even longer given that I’d had the idea for some time before writing it down. It likely was Dread, however, that reinforced the tone I wanted this set of scenes to have. As the Metroid series has gone on, its protagonist has been portrayed more and more like an action hero, pulling off incredible feats of agility and control, and looking freaking awesome while doing it. Dread has integrated those concepts into gameplay more closely than ever, and Seraph’s fight against the giant snake…well, that’s pretty much what a Dread boss fight looks like.

It would be a stretch to say that I “had to” make Seraph so much like Samus. But given the three requirements I stated above, making something that didn’t come out looking like Samus would’ve been a very difficult feat. Futuristic technology that depends entirely upon a user’s combat skills that would be instantly recognizable to a soldier pretty much mandated some form of power armor. I didn’t have to give that power armor a variable (and chargeable) Arm Cannon, or a Speed Booster, or a Morph Ball, but it had to have some kind futuristic weapon that could keep Shadow back, and it had to be fast enough to keep up with Shadow’s speed, and I really wanted to give her a Sonic-style technology-assisted Spin Attack. I suppose I could have made those all separate pieces of technology instead of integrated armor, but that would look less futuristic, less intimidating, less mysterious, and would take away the logical aspect of her studying alien planets and likely needing a suit/helmet that can keep her alive in a variety of environments anyways. So I had the choice to either make a character who doesn’t suit my needs as well as she could, or to make a Samus ripoff. I decided, much as I did with a certain Sly Raccoon, that if I was going to make something that already exists, I might as well go all in and call it a reference. And so, Seraph gained not just the weapons, but also the specific skills and body language of Samus. Of course, visually, the armor is quite a bit different from that of Samus, lacking any of the signature orange color (although Dread stole my white and blue color scheme), having a three-eyed alien face visor with elongated skull, and having a general focus on “teardrop” shapes that Samus’ armor definitely doesn’t have. There’s also the difference of personality, which appears quite similar at first, but soon clarifies that Seraph is perfectly well allowed to talk where Samus is not. (Long story short, Metroid had its own version of Sonic 06 called “Other M,” where Samus apparently talked “too much,” and now the franchise avoids everything that game did like the plague.) So yeah, that’s the story of White Seraph.

But perhaps what you came here for is the story of the White Arms. It’s, uhh…quite a shake-up to the canon, to say the least. There were a lot of factors that went into Seraph’s storytime. Above all else, like much of this series does, the goal was to create a backstory that accurately explains the actions and circumstances, in this case not just of a single Sonic character, but of an entire species…which is technically just a Black Doom hivemind, so it really only is one character, but whatever. The motivation of the Black Arms in Shadow the Hedgehog are unclear at best. Sometimes it looks like they want to simply own the planet from an imperial standpoint, calling for surrender and whatnot, sometimes it looks like they want to specifically subjugate the humans for slave labor/a food source, and sometimes it just looks like they want to annihilate everything. I’m not sure if the Japanese script is any clearer about this than the English one, but between the need to land the Black Comet and plant its roots into the Earth, to spread a new gas into the atmosphere, to plant Red Fruits and other alien vegetation, it always sounded to me like terraforming. They don’t actually want Earth, they want a planet that’s healthy and sustainable for their unique biological needs, and they’re replacing what’s on Earth in order to make that happen. What happens to the humans after that is effectively irrelevant, hence why they seem to keep changing their minds about what they want done in that area. They might hypothetically have some use, but no harm is done if they’re wiped out, so both options are explored over the course of the game. The real question is why. Why did they spend 2000 years or more in the attempt to terraform this particular planet? What was so important about it? Why did they need to in the first place?

We do have at least a small number of clues to look at. The Black Comet, as far as we’re made aware, is a thriving home for them. There’s no indicator that they are in any sort of desperate need for land or resources, and even if they were, Black Doom has such complete control over the population that he most certainly has access to other solutions that, while drastic, would definitely be easier than the 2000 year wait for this particular planet. Even if it was just for the land, there are…a lot of planets with land out there that don’t have the ability to fight back. That goes for our solar system alone. It pretty much can’t be for resources needed to sustain themselves, because they show themselves to be quite capable of bioengineering whatever resources they need regardless of the present conditions of the planet they intend to use. They show no interest in Earth’s inorganic resources—with the singular exception of the Chaos Emeralds. But that’s not it either. They don’t need the planet for the Emeralds, they need the Emeralds just to get down to the surface of the planet. There are planets with much thinner atmospheres that the Black Comet would have no trouble passing through. There’s another interesting factoid in there. Black Doom states that the Comet is unable to pass through “another planet’s atmosphere.” Another planet, as in, he considers the Comet to be a planet. That was what led me to an answer to all of these whys. If we were to assume that the Black Comet is the fragmented remains of what was once a home planet, it would explain almost everything. We’re no longer assuming that the Black Arms are trying to extend what they already have, but instead that they are trying to restore/replicate something that was lost. Sure, any old planet would be better than just a measly comet, but if they’re trying to replace a home planet, that would mean a much narrower range of acceptable conditions. They would need a planet with the right mass to produce the right amount of gravity, the right distance from the sun to maintain the right temperature, and the right composition and age of the sun for that matter. That’s just to name a few. Suddenly, coming across a planet like Earth is a once in a lifetime chance, and any amount of waiting is worth it. Of course, the Chaos Emeralds are probably a bonus/what allowed them to find Earth in the first place, and I’ll get to that.

But before that, we’re now left with the question of what destroyed their planet to begin with. There are plenty of ways to answer that question, but the Black Arms are such an intensely warlike race, seeming to be literally engineered for combat, that a planet-shattering war seems like by far the most reasonable option. But…all evidence seems to indicate the Black Arms are a hivemind species, where only the leader has any agency, controlling the rest telepathically as he attempts to do to Shadow at the end of the game. So…he certainly isn’t fighting himself. Ignoring the whole “Three Houses” idea for a minute, that leaves us with the need to introduce an outside element. A new species so threatening that the Black Arms’ home plant was completely obliterated in the conflict with them. The most straightforward way to play that would be…well, the Metarex style if we’re being honest. Introduce a new alien invader which eats planets for breakfast, outshining the Black Arms and sweeping them aside to show themselves as the far greater threat. There would certainly be some merit to that, but…we’ve spent how many paragraphs now trying to establish why the Black Arms are being made relevant again? It would kind of defeat the purpose if that train of logic ended at them being made irrelevant again. So instead, we need to complicate things a bit more, and give the Black Arms a more evenly matched foe. There are a couple smaller details here that I can’t necessarily talk about yet, but the important point here is that the threat level of the Black Arms is maintained by pitting them against a foe that didn’t clearly force them to do anything drastic or cowardly. A foe that came from their own planet was the most logical way to go about that.

But why White Arms specifically? Any number of strange, planet-destroying things might have been born of the nonsensical alien world the Black Arms came from. Again, this starts heading towards certain details I can’t talk about yet, but hopefully the connection to Chaos Project lore is more than a little obvious. For all Light, there is Darkness, and for all Darkness, there is Light. The Black Arms are the absolute most unquestionably Evil Darkness that has ever existed in the Sonic canon (besides maybe Mephiles, but that’s a different debate). Creating a balancing force to them was a fairly logical conclusion, all things considered. But…doesn’t the whole “Balance” thing usually only apply in matters of Chaos? Well…this is something I hope to talk about in a future episode, but at this moment I’m not certain where it will fit, and I don’t mind sharing it here. The Black Arms are a matter of Chaos. On Earth, being able to use Chaos Control takes a highly specific set of qualifications that are generally unique to the existence of the Chaos Emeralds. Black Doom is the only creature in the known Sonic canon who can use Chaos Control naturally—despite not having Chaos Emeralds on his home world/comet. The claim I’m making is that this unique natural ability derives from the unique nature of the Black Arms’ origin. They come from a planet that is likely more perfectly balanced than any other in the universe. Any, that is, but Earth—which, as stated in Sonic Unleashed, gets quite a bit of an extra outside push to maintain that balance. The energy of the Chaos Emeralds doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from the energy of the Earth, which in turn is generated by the cyclical war between Light and Dark Gaia. A war between light and dark that permits the use of Chaos Energy. Sound familiar…?

So anyways, if we’re making the light opposites to the Black Arms, they, thematically, have to be good guys, and they naturally became a very useful vessel for introducing us and the cast to all of these ideas we just discussed, which pretty much leaves us at the origin of this particular episode. That all took a while, but I think that’s about it on the story of this episode’s creation. So, on to the trivia!

• This episode’s title, “Impending Doom,” is a pretty straightforward reference to the idea that signs are pointing towards the impossible return of Black Doom. Definitely not my favorite title, but it does its job.
  • You might almost say that a sense of impending doom is the same thing as a sense of “Dread”. That’s a coincidence. Mostly…
• The majority of this episode was spread across all 3 (and a half) acts of the Mystic Jungle Zone from Sonic Forces. This is the first major appearance of this location in the Chaos Project, though Big was seen fishing there in the 50th Episode Special.
  • The spot where Johnny and Shadow land appears to be somewhere below Hero’s Act, Aqua Road (and Ep:Shadow Eggman’s Facility by extension), matching the description of aqueducts passing over the ocean.
  • From the top of the hill, Johnny and Shadow are able to view large patches of forest where fires burned years ago, as seen in the background of Sonic’s Act, Luminous Forest. (Eggman’s scattering bombs like confetti!)
  • Being chased by Seraph, Johnny and Shadow enter a particularly decorated ruins structure with a half-finished casino inside, apparently one of the same buildings seen in the background of Classic Sonic’s Act, Casino Forest.
• The concept of the “Black Heralds” shares something of a similarity with post-SGW Archie’s interpretation of the Black Arms in the form of Eclipse the Darkling. It would be a lie to say that no inspiration at all was taken, and planning for this season was happening right around the time those comics first hit my radar, but personally, I never quite liked the way that Archie handled that whole ordeal. Don’t get me wrong, I love that they handled it at all. But you might say that this is me showing how I would’ve done it.
• In his early discussions with Johnny, Shadow mentions that, were he to remove his Inhibitor Rings, he would no longer need a source of Chaos Energy in order to use Chaos Control. This is the first time that this possibility has been mentioned since Chapter 1. Sort of dropped the ball on that one. At that time, the Inhibitor Ring part wasn’t mentioned, so this is serving as the explanation for why we’ve never seen this ability used in The Chaos Project, despite it being explained as possible.
  • Material at lower levels of canon (such as Sonic Battle) have stated outright that this is possible at any time regardless of Inhibitor Rings, but this is one of those instances where I’m choosing not to take everything that game says at face value, even though it has otherwise been CP-canonized.  (7 green Chaos Emeralds, some of which are casually shattered offscreen. I don’t buy it.)
• In the Shadow the Hedgehog game, random soldiers have idle dialogue that includes “Don’t touch the Red Fruit.” If I remember correctly, there might even be a soldier in Westopolis who is forced into one of the Fruits when you get close, teaching you that they’re damaging to the touch. For all we know, that could be Johnny. Sonic was probably off rescuing him during that period of time where he magically disappeared so that Doom’s Eye could introduce himself to Shadow.
• Expect this season to be absolutely packed with random SEGA references. Many of them have already shown up here.
  • The empress of the White Arms is called White Genesis. Besides being the literal opposite of Doom, Genesis is also the American name of the SEGA console that Sonic first appeared on. This is, effectively, the origin point from which all the other references spawned.
  • The mothership commanded by White Genesis is called the White Dreamnet. You might say that I’ve…cast a net to pull in that one. Dreamnet isn’t a SEGA console, but Dreamcast sure is. It’s also been pointed out to me that the “net” change allows the ship’s name to kinda sorta sound like “comet.” Total coincidence, but I’ll take it.
  • The potentially dangerous species listed by Seraph at the end of the episode include the Zoah, a Twilight Cage resident species from Sonic Chronicles, the Algolian monsters, a recurring component of the SEGA fantasy/sci-fi series Phantsy Star, and the Titans of Star—…we’ll get to that.
    • The use of the term “Algolian” was intended as a clever dodging of the issue that the Phantasy Star planet in question is called “Algo” in some games and “Algol” in others. This phrasing is able to cover either option.
      • What Seraph originally said here was “Algolian Monsters and Mother Brain “. Metroid fans likely know that Mother Brain is the primary antagonist of most Metroid games. What they probably don’t know is that Mother Brain is also a primary antagonist in Phantasy Star. As far as I’m aware, it’s a complete coincidence. But it’s such a hilarious one to me, and such an unlikely scenario that I’d be able to simultaneously reference both of them, that I felt like I just had to do it. In the end, however, I cut the reference, because I was just too worried about introducing the potential confusion of “Are you claiming Metroid is canon to Sonic here?” Phantasy Star, maybe, but Metroid, no. The episode starring a Samus knock-off is the last place I would want to give people that false idea.
    • As for the Titans, this is, hopefully, a Sonic Frontiers reference. According to the (deleted?) plot synopsis we currently have of the game, the giant machine(s) seen in the trailer are referred to as Titans. I already theorized that there was something “alien” about the design of that Titan, and when you combine that with the name of the “Starfall Islands,” a potential alien connection becomes downright likely, if you ask me. I theorize that the Titans quite literally fell from the stars, and therefore that there are likely others out there in the galaxy. Depending on how things go from here, I’m starting to think that the “Titans of Starfall” might actually play a significant role this season. Later.
    • EDIT: Hit and a miss! This reference was retconned out of existence, following the release of Sonic Frontiers. The alien prediction was right, but the use of the Titans as something that makes space dangerous didn’t end up making much sense, so this item on the list was replaced with “the enemy of the Ancients.”
  • Also a reference is one of the creatures kept by Seraph on her ship—the Skenouan Astropede. This is a reference to the title character of a scrapped Genesis game which was originally pitched to SEGA as taking place in the Sonic universe. The game never saw the light of day, but the little guy ended up in the CP canon anyways. Welcome home, Astropede! Enjoy your tiny cage!
    • The respective planets from which Seraph’s creatures come are “Orthan” and “Skenoua.” There’s a reference-y naming pattern here, but I think I’ll keep that to myself until a little bit farther down the road.
  • Least notable on the list of SEGA references is the “port town of Miracworl,” a reference to “Alex Kidd in Miracle World,” the former SEGA mascot who was usurped by Sonic. It made sense to me as something that was around before Sonic on the Genesis.
• The three hive leaders of Black Kaosia—Black Famis, Black Morbus, and Black Gladius—have their names derived from Latin. “Famis” for famine, or starvation. “Morbus” for mortality or death, especially by illness or plague. “Gladius” for gladiator, soldier, or death by blade. Combine those three with the Black Beasts, and you have representations of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—the four general ways a person can die: by starvation, by illness, by the hand of man, or by the hand of nature. Naturally, the unifier of them all would become Black Doom. Literally, the apocalypse.
• The “three ruling houses” of Black Kaosia are of absolutely no relation to the game “Fire Emblem Three Houses,” despite that being one of my favorite games ever. It’s a coincidence, I swear.

I was expecting a longer trivia section than this, but that’s all I got for now!

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

S3 E3: Impending Doom

The next episode of The Chaos Project has finally arrived! Read it right here!

When a strange yet familiar craft appears in the night sky, Shadow and Johnny are sent to investigate. But with Shadow’s ominous dreams foretelling a dangerous return, this strange visitor may know more than they seem. Could the Black Arms truly have survived?

Preview: Season 3, Episode 3

Happy New Year, everyone! Fingers crossed that Sonic manages to surprise all of us in 2022. In other news, here’s a preview!

Shadow has taken cover behind a thick, thorny shrub, carefully looking over at a strange craft that has landed in the clearing. As Johnny approaches Shadow from behind, Shadow motions for him to keep his head low. He whispers, “No sign of movement yet.”

“Should we get a closer look?”

“We have no idea what could be inside. Give it time.”

Not much time is needed. A circular panel on the top of the craft slides open, and something begins to rise up from the inside. What appears to be a tall, humanoid robot, plated with white cybernetic armor, slowly turns its head to look at its surroundings. Suddenly, it makes a jet-assisted leap off of the ship, somersaulting through the air to land on the dirt in a crouch. It straightens up in a steady, methodical motion, and marches with careful feet towards the nearest tree. The helmet-like head of the armor projects a wide plane of harsh crimson red light, stretching a straight line of that light across the tree. The light sweeps slowly downwards as the robot’s head tilts down to look over the tree. The light cuts out to the sound of a brief two-beep chime, and the robot holds up one of its three fingers, ejecting a long claw-like needle. It jams the needle through the bark of the tree. After a moment there, it pulls the needle back, retracting it again. Its work with the tree finished, it shuffles just a few steps to the side, kneeling down to cast the light of its scanner beam over a lone flower.

Shadow whispers, “Why would a robot be scanning plants?”

Johnny shakes his head. “It’s not a robot. Do you see the cautious way those feet move along the ground? How an arm is always kept close to the chest? A robot wouldn’t have to do that. Those are the movements of a trained soldier.”

In one swift motion, the armored soldier suddenly turns and points their close-fisted arm straight at the shrub Shadow and Johnny hid behind, as mechanisms in the armor rapidly fold out into the shape of a cannon around the arm. The cannon instantly fires off a white hot shot of plasma, blasting into the shrub and setting it aflame. Keeping a hand over the arm-cannon to steady it, the soldier shuffles closer to the burning bush. They point the weapon threateningly over the top at anyone who might be hiding behind it. But no one is left there.

“We mean you no harm.”

The soldier rapidly stands and pivots, pointing the cannon straight at Johnny’s face.

With his hands held up by his head, Johnny continues calmly, “I am Captain Johnnathan Naka, formerly of the GUN Advanced Munitions and Mechanical Operations unit. We’d like to know who you are and what your purpose here is.”

The soldier pulls the arm-cannon back only just far enough to make room for a scanner beam, which sweeps down over Johnny much as it did the plants. When the scan chimes at completion, the weapon is pushed right back into place. A filtered voice projects out from the soldier’s helmet. “Who is with you?”

With a slight groan, Shadow steps out slowly from his new hiding place, hands raised like Johnny’s. “That would be me.”

The soldier immediately turns to scan Shadow. The moment the scanner beeps off, the arm-cannon jerks from Johnny to him.

Shadow maintains his calm. “My name is Shadow the Hedgehog. I—”

The soldier cuts him off. “I know exactly what you are.”

The arm-cannon fires.

Who is this strange armored soldier? What is their purpose here? And what do they know about Shadow? Find out, on the next episode of The Chaos Project, coming soon!