ToaArcan

AFAIK, it's losing the collect-a-thon aspect, but the whole fire and ice mechanic itself doesn't appeal. At this point I'm just in the mood for a regular game without more gimmicks.

The biggest complaint I've heard about SHattered Crystal is that the metroidvania + collect-a-thon elements turned the game into a tedious grindfest.

Alright, so my favourite character in the Sonic franchise is Emerl, because he has the best story, a great design, best ability, and, if you take each of the circa-2004 cast and merge their One-or-Two-Trope personalities into one, you get an actual rounded character! Of course, due to this, he's become a major character in most things I write, as generally the strongest of the FF. And I ended up pairing him with Nicole as a joke, but it turns out that people liked it and I liked writing it, so it stuck. One thing I've been prone to doing is lowballing his strength severely. While I thought I was restoring him to his full power for the latest project, the Uncivil Trilogy, I soon found out that, in fact, he has the power to destroy a world on his own, according to Gerald, who generally knows his stuff. This should've been obvious, since it took a star-buster cannon to overload his scanning system, I suppose.

Yeah, I can't see there being much room for improvement. The trailer didn't look good.

Bethesda = Glitches

Alright, here's what we know: 1) Roboticization was established as petrifying Overlanders/humans. 2) This did not happen to Robo-Robotnik, making this a clear case of retroactive continuity. 3) Snively was able to survive the transformation because he "Wanted it". 4) Our source on the effects is Robo-Robotnik himself, who is not a reliable source. So, from this, we could glean that Eggman had control over whether they were petrified or not, and simply chose to keep Snively alive. However, if we assume that it is realit doesn't make a lot of sense, which I suppose if why we're even talking about it.

Funny thing is, when it came time to write Rosemary, I decided to just write her as she was when Bollers had the pen- Actually a loving mother. I do, however, have ideas involving her as a villain. SEGA have tight limits on what their characters can be shown doing. Ian's probably exploiting the freedom he has with the Egg Bosses for all it's worth.

RPs are always fun, but one thing on my mind is getting word-of-mouth out there. I've already sent the link to a few people and asked them to pass it on, and I've suggested the Sonic subreddits r/sonic and r/sonicthehedgehog to Wulfsbane too.

Reminds me of a story from the first Planetside. Players were having an in-game wake for a dead community member, and this whole outfit showed up with aircraft and carpet-bombed the procession. Because they could. The guys were already notorious for basically being white supremacists, and were shortly banhammered. The entire outfit. Yea.

And both cases showed amazing levels of dickery by the players. The Falador Massacre got its name because the players decided to use the glitch to murder a bunch of defenceless people, while the Corrupted Blood case is actually now used as a case study regarding bioterrorism, because the tactics people used to spread it were so similar to real-life cases.

Before Sonic, this was my favourite game series... though technically I only knew it through the anime and the toys, and the first game I got was Ruby, the fourth game I got the GBA (Sonic Advance 3 being my second). I'm still rather invested in it, I mostly hang around on the Nuzlocke Forums, and recently ran a mostly experimental group-Nuzlocke with Wulfsbane and Mr Nemesis. We weren't that successful, and it petered out rather quickly, but it did teach me some important things for running such an event, as well as netting me a deathless run of White version, so that's all good. However, that's a topic for the group gaming section, and only if there's enough interest. For now, favourite generation, starters, etc. Favourite Generation: Gen IV- What got me back into Pokemon after a dry spell. Favourite Game: Platinum- I honestly think this is the best Pokemon game in terms of difficulty curve, Pokemon selection, environments, etc. Favourite Rival: Wally. He was a joke in RSE. In ORAS? His Gallade curbstomped by Mega Sceptile and my Primal Kyogre. I was not underlevelled. Favourite Gym Leader: Norman. Pokemon is a coming-of-age story at core, with a lowly child from a sleepy backwater rising through the region to become the strongest trainer in the land, and in Gen III-onwards, save the world along the way. And what better element could there be than battling your own father. And Norman doesn't go down easy, either, which is perfect, that's exactly what I want out of a fight like this. When I first played Ruby, watching his last Slaking fall to my Sceptile felt like the single greatest achievement ever. And bear in mind, this was within an hour of beating Flannery with just Sceptile, because I was a stupid kid and didn't using anything but him. Favourite Professor: Rowan. The manliest thing to ever exist in Pokemon. Favourite Champion: Cynthia. Platinum was the first game where I had a balanced team. Cynthia still almost kicked my ass, bringing me down to my last mon, a Giratina. She also engages in the story, has a personality beyond "I a stronk and nice to Pokemans, now we must fight!",and has a bunch of my favourites on her team. Favourite Villain: Cyrus. I wanted to put N here, but he's not really a villain per se... In fact, the game outright calls him a hero, and says that,even though he was misguided, he still had a genuine connection with Reshiram/Zekrom. So I went with the omnicidal maniac. Because as things go, that's pretty tough to beat. Favourite Starters Gen I: Venusaur. Statistically the best starter for the region it's in. Has favourable matchups against 6/8 Gym Leaders, the villain, and doesn't fair too badly against the E4. Gen II: Feraligatr. Gyarados without the 4x weakness, greatly useful for traversing the game world, and very quick to obtain. Gen III: I love all three of them equally. All of them were in my first champion team, and I can't choose between them. Gen IV: Infernape. One of the first viable starters in competitive, this thing gelled perfectly with my "Hit them hard and think later" playstyle that I had at the time. Also, has a great design. Gen V: Serperior. Underpowered for no real reason (Biggest Starter, can't learn Earthquake, no Poison typing, etc), but has a great design and served me well in Gen V. Gen VI: Braixen. Not Delphox because I didn't evolve mine past form two. Gen VII: Rowlet ATM, may change with the reveal of the final forms. Favourite Eeveelution: Vaporeon. While I prefer Espeon and Leafeon's designs and movepool, Vaporeon is the one I find slotting most easily into my team, and the most useful there once there. Favourite Legendary: Mew. It learns all the TMs and tutors. I taught mine Steel Wing. Favourite Pseudo-Legendary: Garchomp. Because it's brutally OP and it has an awesome design. Favourite overall Pokemon: Gardevoir. Has an excellent movepool, good stats, a silly-looking but scarily powerful Mega, and a design that mixes ethereal, elegant, and somewhat unsettling into one package. Least favourite Generation: Gen I. One of those times you should definitely play the remake instead. Least favourite game: X/Y. So very bland, with poor pacing and storytelling next to Gen V, and far too many obnoxious "BESTEST BUDDEHS" characters. Least favourite Rival: Hugh. BW2 felt like it was supposed to be his story, but due to the game's need for the hero to be a characterless cipher, the story ended up being dominated by your rival screaming about Purrloins and unleashing rage. Added, he forced an assload of tag battles on you and got my Serperior killed in a NUzlocke. Least favourite Professor: Cedric Juniper. Originally intended to be the professor for Gen V, when they came up with Aurea Juniper, they kept him in as her father. He contribute little, giving you Pokedex upgrades that you could've easily gotten from the real professor, and otherwise be an additional speaker that makes the abundance of cutcenes around Mistralton-Opelucid even slower while contributing nothing. Least favourite Gym Leader: Ramos. I legit forgot all about this guy after beating Y. Least favourite Champion: Diantha: The most forgettable champion ever, she contributes nothing to the plot, a major step back from every other champion ever. Least favourite villain: Lysandre. Bad writing is probably the only thing you can get when the "two games for the price of one" model means that the majority of his lines have to fit both him wanting to make himself and his minions immortal (X) and him wanting to kill everyone except himself and his allies (Y) without any overlap.He rambles about beauty, but is pathetically easy to beat, especially in X. Least favourite starters: Gen I: Charizard: Honestly not a bad Pokemon, and I don't dislike it, but it's not as useful as its brethren, and is seriously overhyped. Gen II: Meganium: Again, a good Pokemon, but it just doesn't suit my playstyle. Gen III: N/A, see above. Gen IV: Torterra. Ice moves for days combined with low speed aren't my cup of tea. Gen V: Self-cooking bacon. Third Fire/Fighting in a row and the least useful of all of them, and the worst design. Gen VI: Greninja. Majorly overhyped and given a broken ability and huge amounts of spotlight in the anime to justify it being picked for Smash before GF even started development on Gen VI. Gen VII: Popplio. A mediocre Oshawott rehash with a clown look? Nope. Overall least favourite Pokemon: Stunfisk. Just... just look at it. You can probably tell that I'm not one to ironically "Like" something stupid because the majorty are saying it's stupid.

I remember reading about that on Cracked before Cracked went full-SJW and started sucking. It was like the forerunner to the Corrupted Blood incident in Warcrack.

I always thought that she resented the FF for seemingly taking over the role of Tails' family, and Sally in particular for her role as his mother figure.

One of my biggest complaints with the current comic is that nearly every newly-introduced villain is tied to Eggman for no reason, without giving a good reason for them to follow him, or why they should respect him. Oh, most definitely, they were pretty terrible.

Nick Fury is an interesting case- Marvel actually wanted to make the Ultimate Universe Nick Fury look like Sam Jackson, and he agreed to let them use his likeness provided that they let him play the character in any upcoming films. Since the MCU is a sort of 50/50 between the 616 and Ultimate universes, they went through with it and cast Jackson as per their agreement. An interesting case regarding Mr. Elba is the supposed incoming adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, where he has apparently been cast as the Gunslinger. All well and good, he's a great actor... but the Gunslinger being white is actually part of the plot- He gets harassed by another protagonist, a somewhat weird black woman, because he is white. With the change, they'll either have to drop that plot entirely or change it to a white woman hating him because he's black, which, well... stops her from being an interesting character and makes her just a racist in the eyes of the audiences. I can already hear angry Twitter mobs baying for the character's blood.

Fiona strode confidently into Casinopolis, eyes flitting across the various patrons under Mammoth Mogul’s protection. She glanced at her watch- Several hours had passed since she left Freedom HQ, so any hope of rescuing Scourge before the combined force of the Freedom Fighters and Suppression Squad overwhelmed him was looking thin. She’d need to at least go to Moebius in order rescue him, putting her options for new minions much narrower. A thought crossed her mind, that the Squad might not imprison him, but instead kill him- They’d made no secret of their contempt for him, and had even tried to sway her to their side, but she’d remained steadfast in her loyalty to him.She swelled with pride for a moment, before a more familiar voice rang through her memories.“Keep telling yourself that.”Sonic’s arguments stuck in her mind, much moreso than she wanted to admit. Her pride faltered, superseded by anger at herself. Her face hardened, snarling involuntarily at her own weaknesses- She’d cried in front of him. Before, she had stepped on his heart, struck his closest friend as hard as she could, and tore into him over his failure to save her, and it had only made him angry. And yet, with a few simple words, he had reduced her to a quivering, sobbing wreck. Her trip had been spent agonizing as to why this happened, and she still had no answers. A part of her screamed that perhaps his points were correct, but she shrugged it off, stomped the voice down. She’d been doing that a lot lately, since she had joined Finitevus’ plans.Realising that the other patrons were staring at her, her eyes widened for a moment, glaring defensively back. She had half a mind to ask what they were staring at, but currently she had no backup, so aggravating them was a bad idea, especially since she intended to try and recruit some of them. With all eyes on her, save for one- a figure with a distinctive purple, crooked tail, wrapped in a greatcoat, head covered with a stetson, sat at the bar- evidently, Nack was drowning his sorrows again- she smirked.“Hello, everybody. My name is Fiona Fox, and I’m here to recruit people for a little rescue operation.” She paused to gauge reactions- Most of them were still watching her quietly, but Nack seemed to be shifting slightly, turning on his barstool. “A close personal friend of mine got into some hot water with the Freedom Fighters and their counterparts from the anti-Mobius, and chances are they’ve taken him back there. They might’ve killed him, but with any luck, they haven’t, and we can get in there and save him.”“Who’s “We”? a voice called out. She turned to look at them, but she didn’t recognise the face.“Well, me, and anyone who comes with me.”“And what’s in it for us?”“Well, my friend managed to conquer Anti-Mobius, or Moebius, as we call it now. Planet full of psychopaths and maniacs, and he took it all over, bent it to his will, in a week. Even made me his queen. If we rescue him, we can do that again, even easier, and then you’ve got all the money, power, and anything else you need, no worries.”“Doesn’t sound so bad. Anything we’ve got to worry about?”“Well, there is the Suppression Squad. “Evil” versions of the Freedom Fighters, except Sonic and Amy. They’re not quite sane, willing to kill, all that stuff.” She replied. Immediately, the rows of interested faces looked awkwardly at each other, then at her, and returned to their drinks, ignoring the vixen again.“And just like that, you’ve lost ‘em.” Another familiar voice echoed through the room. It seemed to have come from Nack, but the voice was definitely a woman’s. The weasel turned, and stood up, looking straight at Fiona. There were certainly similarities between her and Nack, but her muzzle was shorter, her torso covered by a white bodysuit, her boots lacking the brown toes, her gloves reaching her elbows. The distinctive enlarged fang was gone, and she shifted her hat, allowing long purple locks to fall down behind her. “Nic?” The vixen paused. Immediately, several of the patrons were pointing guns at the weasel, who rolled her eyes.“I don’t know why you’re bothering. Nack won’t pay you, even if you do kill me. I also don’t know why you all think you can get something good from helping the guy whose biggest claim to fame is “I got kicked in the nuts by Princess Sally and beaten half-to-death by Amy Rose”. But what the hell, if you want to try and take me on...” She reached inside her coat, pulling out a pair of oversized handguns. Within a few seconds, every single glass in the room had been shot out, followed by the lights. She slipped a pair of night vision goggles onto her face. “... bring it on.”The assorted criminals sat still for a moment, silently daring each other to make the first move. One of them pulled the hammer back, and, with another cacophony of gunfire, the weasel relieved each one of their weapons.“I didn’t get where I was without getting to be a really good shot. Seriously thought you guys would’ve got that.” She mocked a sigh, sauntering past them, towards her former partner. Fiona smiled, closing the gap as the weasel pocketed her weapons and removed the goggles.“Nic, it’s gre- Ow!” She was cut off when the weasel sharply pinched her ear, tugging her toward the exit. “You’ve got some serious explaining to do, young lady.” SHe hissed over her shoulder, kicking the door open.“Ow ow ow ow, quit it!” She shouted, as they reached the cold night air, slapping Nic’s hand away. She reached up, rubbing her sore ear, glaring at her. “What was that for?!”“You mind telling me what you’re doing? Running around, trying to raise an army to take over another Mobius. And doing it all while dressing like a skank. I thought I raised you better than this.”“Oh, what, are you gonna call me out for being ‘bad’ now? The bounty hunter-come-treasure thief?”“There’s a line, Fi. Conquering worlds is well over it.” Nic folded her arms. “Hey, it was Scourge’s idea, not mine!”“Scourge... Scourge!? You threw in with Scourge!?” She grabbed Fiona’s shoulders, shoving her against the wall. “Are you insane? Or just plain stupid?”“Hey, he’s not as bad as people say he is!”“He’s trying to conquer planets! He calls himself Scourge! He’s a liar, a traitor, a mass-murderer, a pervert! And he works for Finitevus!”“What’s wrong with Finitevus?”“Oh, I don’t know, how about the whole “Burn the world to ash and rebuild it his way” schtick?” She retorted. “You’re trying to destroy one world and conquer another, throwing in behind Scourge. And the crazy part is that you don’t even realise what you’re becoming.”“Oh, what am I becoming?” She sneered.“Well, I want you answer this: How are you any better than Robotnik?”Fiona threw a punch at Nic, who nonchalantly titled her head away from the blow. The vixen swung again, the weasel’s fingers closing around her wrist. She twisted it slightly, sending a twinge of pain through her arm. “Don’t compare me to him! I’m nothing like him!”“Answer my question, Fi. Tell me how you’re better than him. Tell me how serving Scourge and Finitevus is any better than Nack helping the lardass.”“I...”“You can’t answer, can you?”“I’m not like him...” She murmured, arm relaxing.“You’re supporting people who are just as bad, or worse in the case of Finitevus.” Nic replied, releasing her arm. “And I want to know why.”“Because I love Scourge! You wouldn’t understand that, but it’s true!”“And that’s worth all the wrongs you’re going to commit? All the atrocities you’ll support?”“I-”“Think long and hard about that one, Fi.” The weasel’s voice was suddenly lower, softer, and several orders of magnitude more threatening. Fiona shrank back as much as she could with her back against the wall. Nic could be very loud. She was very good at it, and it projected the aura of a hair-trigger temper. But in truth, Nic was a very patient woman. Her shouting was often just a way to let off steam. When she really became enraged, Nic became very quiet, very cold. Almost mechanical. “And how about Finitevus?”“Scourge worked for him.”“And that’s it? That’s why you do things now? Because Scourge does them?” Nic rolled her eyes. “You know, Fiona, you’re standing awfully well for a girl without a backbone.”“Doing things together is what couples do, Nic!”“And how many times has he taken you somewhere you wanted to go?”“Loads-”“That you wanted to go to for reasons other than “Scourge said so”?”“Uh...” She paused. There hadn’t been a single time. In fact, Scourge had never even asked her. Nic noticed the silence, smiling grimly.“What even is there to love about him? What attracted you to him?”“Well, he was more fun than Sonic, for one thing. For a roguish charming hero, “ol’ blue” wasn’t half dull.” Fiona shrugged.“Maybe because he was on the rebound from dating a princess? Shoulda seen that he was still hurting and said no.”“I asked him.”“Well, then you’ve got no-one to blame but yourself. You basically stamped “Rebound Girl” on your forehead. You locked yourself into a dead-end relationship, and Scourge exploited that. Hell, that relationship is the entire reason he wanted you.”“Huh?”“Don’t you see, Fiona?” Nic sighed. “You’re not his girlfriend. You’re his trophy. Scourge only wants you because you were Sonic’s girl. If Sonic had still been with Sally, he wouldn’t have given you a second glance. I met him once. ‘Bout two months ago. He was drunk off his ass, probably couldn’t remember the encounter if you asked him, because he spent most of the evening sleeping on a bowl of pretzels. He tried chatting me up. I knew who he was, but I decided to humour him. See if I couldn’t get him to spill a bit on FInitevus’ plans. Then I could sell the details to GUN, they love getting stuff like that. And it worked. That’s how I knew about the albino freakshow’s deal. ‘Course, he gave me the whole life story first.”“If he gave you the whole story, how come you didn’t know I was with him?” Fiona asked.“He never mentioned your name. He just mentioned some “dumb bimbo” that he’d managed to get to follow him away from Sonic. Guess that’s you. Of course, he mentioned this while his eyes were glued to the barmaid’s tits, very classy.”“He was drunk! He’s different when he’s sober.”“Hopefully he’s better at seducing people, or there’s something seriously wrong with you.” Nic smirked. “Anyway, he mentioned that he spent more time going after Bunnie Rabbot and Amy Rose. He made a pass at the “dumb bimbo”, but she didn’t take his fancy. Apparently, she didn’t appeal until Sonic went for her, at which point, well, you became priority target. The only reason he even cares about you is because you were Sonic’s girlfriend. You’re his ace over Sonic, as long as Sonic still cares, Scourge will keep you as a memento to his bruised ego. But the moment Sonic gets over you, and Scourge realises that... you’re screwed.”“I-”“Do you understand me now, Fi? You’re becoming no better than the man that tortured you as a child, all so you can keep being the brainless arm-candy for a psychopath that doesn’t even care about you. That’s all there is to it... So, are you going to wake up and do something about this, or do I have to make you?”“How do I know if I can trust you or not?”“Because you’re my little sister, and I won’t ever lie to you?”“Bull, you lied to me before!”“To protect you. And look what happened, it totally worked. If I’d told you the truth about that little excursion, we both know you would’ve run in half-cocked and got seriously hurt.”“Alright, alright...” Fiona said. Her ears drooped, eyes shut tightly. She slid down the wall into a sitting position, pulling her knees closer to herself, her head slumping into them. Her tail wrapped around her body, and her shoulders shook, as the first bitter, angry sobs shook her small frame. “I believe you.”Nic sat down beside her, pulling her into a gentle embrace, guiding Fiona to lean on her shoulder. Carefully, she pulled several pins out of Fiona’s hair, and it fell down into a more natural look, but not quite the curled style she had worn before.“What do we do now?”“I’m taking you home, to my place. We’ll get you cleaned up, get you something decent to wear, and then we can work out how to fix the mess you caused for the Freedom Fighters.”Fiona nodded, and allowed Nic to lift her up, carefully carrying her to the hoverbike she had left outside the casino. “Say Fi, I’ve had a few... Think you can drive this thing?”“Of course I can.” Fiona nodded, smiling weakly.***That evening, the two quasi-siblings sat on a couch in Nic’s apartment, Fiona once again leaning on Nic. She now wore a loose-fitting t-shirt and sweats, her hair and fur now properly groomed once more.“I feel so stupid...” She finally said. The duo had sat in relative silence for a while, leaving each other to their own thoughts.“Well, in a way, good. You can see where you’ve erred, and you won’t do it again.” The weasel shrugged. “Right?”“When you mentioned the mess I made of the Freedom Fighters... You don’t know the half of it.”“Hm?”“I... I managed to piss off just about all of them, even the ones that didn’t know me much. Amy came at with the hammer while I was trying to sneak off to meet Scourge, I mocked and ridiculed Sonic for trying to help people, Sally hates my guts and thinks of me as nothing more than a traitor... Tails... Oh gods, Tails...”“The half-pint? What’d you do to him?”“He was nuts about me... and I stepped on his heart twice, and then when I left, I slapped him in the face!”“Okay, why the hell did you do that?”“Scourge said I had to... Said I had to do something that would hurt Sonic as much as possible... Said I should hurt his sidekick. Especially after I let slip about his crush...”“Word of advice: If Scourge tells you that you should do something, ignore him.”“Oh brilliant, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind when I’m a whole universe away from him.” The vixen groaned. Nic smirked slightly, before sighing. “Well, you’ve got a lot to make up for.” She said. “So how do we deal with this?”“You’re gonna help me?” She stared at Nic.“Sisters, remember?”“Okay, okay...” Fiona nodded. She stood up and walked over to the window, quietly watching the rain running down the glass. “Honestly, I don’t know what I can do. I guess, well, the first step would be an apology... But I don’t think that will cover it. I doubt they’ll ever trust me again... but I guess that’s only fair.”“I’ve got a bit of a plan myself... We’re going to find your ex, and put a bullet between his eyes. If anything screams “Change of Heart”, it’s shooting the jackass in the face.”“Or it could make me look like even more of an opportunist traitor...”“Okay, good point.”“Make no mistake, Nic. If he’s alive, we’ll kill him. But it has to be in a way that doesn’t make us look worse.”“So now you’re on-board with killing him?”“I threw away my life for his lies. I had everything I wanted, and I was too blind to see it. And then he came in and told me all the things I wanted to hear, and what did it amount to? Being queen of a planet where everyone wanted to kill us and take our position. And now I feel like I’ve got nowhere to go from here... He ruined me, Nic.” She hissed, hand balling into a fist as she turned to face her friend again.“It’s one of those things, Fi... You never know how good you have it, until you lose it all. I didn’t even realise how much I needed you until you left...”“Then I suppose there’s my answer to where I go next...” Fiona mused. “Here. I’m staying with you.”“Really?”“You need me.”“I was thinking that I’d come with you. Fi, I can’t have this life anymore. With Nack after me I barely get any work, and I can’t support myself. I keep having to move out of places every time he finds where I live, on the off-chance he gets lucky.”“So you want me to try and get back in Sally’s good graces?”“Maybe. Maybe we find another team. Maybe we make our own. However it happens, we break into the Freedom-Fighting business.”“You know that Freedom Fighters don’t kill unless they absolutely have to, right?”“Well, we absolutely have to make sure nobody goes through what you did.” Nic replied, putting her hands on Fiona’s shoulders, before pulling her into a hug. “That’s why we’re going to do this.”“Alright.” Fiona nodded. “What do we do about Nack?”“Beat him up, and dump him on the Freedom Fighters’ door. They’ll take care of him.”“Okay then... Let’s do it.” The vixen smiled. “One thing: I’m gonna need a new weapon.”“Oh, that can be arranged.” Nic smirked. “I nabbed these handy little devices called shock gauntlets. I think you’ll like them. I’ll get you some new clothes too. And it’ll look a lot better and be a lot more comfortable than that... thing... Scourge got you.”“Thank you.” The two embraced. “So what’s with the new look?”“The fang was making eating and talking hard. Plus, it was a bit of a turn-off to any prospective partners. I grew my hair out because people kept mistaking me for Nack.”“Even with the chest?”“Yes.”“How many people have you shot, or otherwise injured, because of that?”“A few.”“Damn. And the coat?”“It has loads of pockets for my gear. And it looks badass.”“Can’t disagree.” She nodded.“Want one?”“Nic, you know my tail’s kinda sensitive. I’ll have a shorter one.”“Okay. Now, let’s go get those shock gauntlets.”***The next day, in Freedom HQ, the Knothole Freedom Fighters sat around the main table, blueprints, plans, and documents laid out in front of them, along with a three-dimensional map, projected from Nicole.“Okay, what are we hitting today, Sal?” Sonic asked. “We need to put Eggman on the back foot before we assault the Eggdome. If we hit him now, he’ll be ready for something. If we knock him off-kilter, then it’ll be easier to hit him again, hard, while he’s still reeling. Fortunately, we have a way to do that.” Sally replied.“So, what’s the target, Sally-Gal?”“Eggman’s getting a shipment of something important today. We have reason to suspect it’s a new weapon or power source of some sort. It’s got heavy security, whatever it is.” Nicole zoomed the map in on the landing strip.“How do we know he’s not just going to extreme lengths to project his lunch again?” Tails spoke up.“Well, we got tipped off, thanks to Geoffrey’s team. They saw something being loaded up yesterday, and whatever it is, it was putting out a lot of energy.” The squirrel explained. “So we’re going to go there, steal whatever it is, get Nicole to plant some nasty viruses in the Eggnet and steal some files from the ship’s computer, and blow up the landing strip, and the craft with it.”“Alright, I like the sound of that.” Sonic nodded.“Now, Rotor has already got the explosives loaded up, and Tails has provided a new transport craft- The Special’s getting old, and it’s not at all quick in comparison to the fighters Eggman uses now.”“I created a Magnetic Mass Accelerator. It was supposed to be an upgrade for Bunnie’s cannon, but its far to big to be a personal weapon, so I put it on the new plane!”“And... in English?”“Railgun.”“Oh, nice!”“Thanks!”“Anyway... Antoine has run through the risk assessment, and this one’s going to be a little harder than usual. Security is tight, so we’re going to need some solid overwatch. Fortunately, Rotor will be keeping the plane airborne and using the weapon systems to cover us while we attack on the ground. Since landing won’t be safe, this is an air-drop, so if you can’t fly or take long drops, bring a parachute.”As Sally finished explaining, a Warp Ring split the air above them, and Nack the Weasel fell out, crashing into the table. He seemed to be unconscious, hands cuffed behind his back, with a letter taped to his tail. The ring snapped shut, leaving the assembled team staring at the sudden new arrival. “Uh... not exactly what I’d call a present...” Sonic mused, nudging him. “He’s out cold… Want me to run him down to the jail?”“Nicole, scan the envelope. Make sure it’s not a letter bomb.” Antoine spoke up.“Already done. It isn’t.”“Well, what is it?” Amy asked. Sally took the letter, opened it, and pulled out a single sheet of paper.“It says… ‘Dear Freedom Fighters, I’m writing this to let you know that you’ve got a pair of unorthodox allies. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve got a long road ahead of me before I can hold my head high in public again, but and with my Sis’ help, I’ll be done in no time. Hopefully you can consider this a first step. He was going to be a thorn in our sides, so we let him come to us, got the drop on him, and sent him on over. All the best… Fiona Indigo Fox…’”“‘P.S: We’re taking Bean and Bark on as our team-mates, so don’t worry about them.’” Sonic added, leaning over Sally’s shoulder.“Well, Ah’ll be…”“She has a sister?”“Nah, Ames. S’what she always called Nic the Weasel. They were like family apparently, somewhere between a sister and a mother. Nic was to Fi what the rest of us were to Tails…”“Guys, look, there’s something else in the envelope!” Tails piped up, barely believing his ears. Sonic swiped it, and pulled the second piece out. “It’s a photo.” He said, putting it on the desk. It showed Fiona, now clad in a familiar yellow-and-white outfit, with a belt across her chest, her upper body wrapped in a short white coat. She was embracing Nic with one arm, the other holding up a “peace” gesture,the weasel mirroring her position, her free arm adjusting her hat. Her arms were encased in shiny golden gauntlets, with blue circles on the backs of the palms. “Heh… guess we’ve got some extra backup for the big one…” *** Uploading more oneshots before I start on any of my larger works. THis one is set just before Issue 198-200. I like Nic a lot more than her design would really merit. She's got a fairly interesting history, and I especially like playing her off against Fiona. Normally, I write them with a more parental bond, but their exact relationship here was decided by poll on DA, back when I had a premium. This Fiona should probably also set the tone for the versions of her that I'll bring in for future stories. Hope you enjoy.

Once Flynn took over, general quality of the villains nosedived. Patch here was brought down to just being one of Scourge's lackeys, Eggman was truly monstrous but Ian wrote it in such a way that it felt like we were supposed to like him, Scourge himself was every variety of awful, Mogul basically retired, Naugus spent most of the run without a brain and then managed to pull off a much dumber version of this plot basically because Ian said so, and about the only good one was Finitevus. THey really shouldn't have done SU arcs that focused on the villains, because then Ian turned them into protagonists rather than letting them be vile in the limelight. Eggman was at his most evil in the Mecha Sally plot tumour, but then he gets his own SU arc where, while gleefully sending the mutilated shell of his former enemy into combat, he rips you right out of the experience with a homage to Empire Strikes Back and sings his own damn theme song. When writing a villain, you should never reach the point where people ask "Why is he still alive?", and the only answers you can give are "Because the plot", "Because I say so" or "Because my bosses say so." Eggman reached that a long time ago, as did Scourge.

The machines might not be the same. For one thing, the one in Robotnik's body would be a lot smaller.

One of the most popular aspects of the Sonic franchise are the mechanical copies of the main protagonist, primarily Metal Sonic. However, the exact order of their appearances and the evolution of the concept is currently a less-than-clear thing, and I felt like going over them all. I'm putting this in the Mega Drive era folder, since the vast majority of their appearances were in those titles, with fewer appearing after that. I will not be covering the robots in other media like the shows and comics, though I will be discussing some of the discrepancies between the game lore and the comic stories, and I will use comic art for images because some of it looks better than the sprites. Our long history of Sonic robots begins in Sonic 2 for the Game Gear/Master System, with the one and only Silver Sonic. Yes, that is really what it looks like. Silver Sonic's role in the story differed based on the playthrough. If you hadn't collected five Chaos Emeralds, he would be the final boss. However, if you had found each of the Emeralds, hidden throughout the zones, his corpse would contain the sixth, and you would be able to proceed to the Crystal Egg Zone to rescue Tails from Robotnik's clutches. This particular robot appeared in the comic as part of a flashback during the "Champions" arc, heavily implied to be part of the comic's version of its game of origin. It received a slightly updated look, which made it a bit more dignified, and was labeled as a prototype, due to the comics creating the idea of a "Silver Sonic" series, and Ian needing to keep his own creation as the third model, even though the second model had been wiped from canon. The second robot to grace our presence appeared in the Mega Drive version of Sonic 2, and is known as Mecha Sonic. This robot is commonly mislabeled as Silver Sonic, or something to that effect, but its canonical name is Mecha Sonic. The misnomer was a result of Archie, who conflated it with its 8-bit counterpart during the Sonic Quest miniseries, and the name was later adopted by the fandom to differentiate it from the robot in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and Sonic's roboticized form. Nevertheless, its appearance in the non-canon Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, and the backstory for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, its name has been firmly established as Mecha Sonic. Mecha Sonic appears to be a prototype of a later design, and is only the warm-up for the battle with the Death Egg Robot. Next up is the one robot that everyone is familiar with, Metal Sonic. Metal's exact place in the timeline is uncertain, but I'm placing his first outing here. Unlike Mecha Sonic, he seemed to be designed more to match Sonic's speed than fight him in combat, though he has plenty of energy-based attacks of his own. Metal was initially little more than a mindless servant of Robotnik, though his AI would later evolve. He was initially seen kidnapping Amy Rose, and later raced against Sonic in Stardust Speedway, but upon losing, was disabled by Robotnik's own weapons and left to rust. An alternate version of this battle happened during the time paradox in Sonic Generations, where he displayed more aggressive tactics and was destroyed by Sonic. However, since this incarnation of Metal Sonic was reactivated in Sonic the Hedgehog 4, we can assume that the Generations version of the battle is non-canonical. Following the loss of Metal Sonic, Robotnik brought another robot to Angel Island, the second Mecha Sonic. Also known as that robot that curbstomped everyone in SMBZ. Confirmed to be an upgraded replacement for the previous Mecha Sonic, this particular robot guarded the Sky Sanctuary. It displayed the ability to drive vehicles, or at least Eggmobiles, and survived its defeat at the hands of Sonic and Tails. It later returned in Knuckles' story, having seemingly gone rogue after the defeat of Eggman, where it was revealed to be the one that stole the Master Emerald, destroying the EggRobo that had been hounding Knuckles by accident, then battling him by himself. During the battle, Mecha Sonic became the first antagonist to manifest a Super form, albeit a fairly unstable one. Mecha Sonic MkII's exact fate is ambiguous. Since the Master Emerald is recovered, that would make the ending where Mecha Sonic self-destructs and Knuckles reclaims the Emerald canon. However, said ending is only seen if the player collects all of the Chaos Emeralds, something that would be difficult if they had scattered after Sonic used them in Doomsday Zone. Ultimately, it is most likely that Mecha Sonic was destroyed. Following this, Eggman reactivated the damaged Metal Sonic, and repaired him in the Mad Gear Zone. After that, he was sent to recover an energy source from Lost Labyrinth Zone, which he absorbed, growing in power. Metal later opposed Sonic and Tails on his own in Episode 2, displaying several new abilities before ultimately being defeated and disappearing for a time. Metal would next reappear in Knuckles Chaotix, where it appeared as a surprise final boss. Upon being separated from the Stage Select, it transforms into a monstrous red form, that had no thighs for some reason. THis design was labeled "Titan Metal Sonic" by Archie. The form was defeated by the Chaotix, but Metal Sonic was shown escaping with Robotnik, having survived its battle. Metal Sonic would make a return in Sonic R, alongside EggRobo, and joined by the Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles, but the lack of story in the game beyond a plot intro in the manual meant that his exact role beyond being sent to join a race is unknown. Sonic the Fighters brought us a new robot, known as Mecha Sonic Model No.29, also known as Rocket Metal. Rocket Metal's role in the game is incredibly brief. It only appears in the intro, where it transforms into a rocket and flies around the Death Egg II, before disappearing forever. Any elaboration on what this design actually is remains lacking. While Archie comics have made an adaptation of the game, it was incredibly loose- Neither Robotnik nor the Death Egg are important at all, and Rocket Metal did not appear outside of an off-panel that made jokes about his head being too heavy to move. Yes, really. In Arcade modeRocket Metal can be selected by hacking, and, like fellow "lost character" Honey the Cat, copies moves from other fighters. In what very weak meta the game has, Rocket Metal was considered the strongest character. However, unlike Honey, he was not added to the 2012 rerelease of the game. In the game proper, Metal Sonic is the penultimate foe, and one of the few challenging opponents in the game. In fact, he's actually tougher than the final boss, Robotnik. However,he is ultimately defeated by Super Sonic, and left in the exploding Death Egg. Metal Sonic next appeared in the lobby of the Final Egg, deactivated and in stasis. However, the more interesting robot in this case is the unnamed one in the second tube. THe robot bears a distinct resemblance to the Mecha Sonic models from Sonic 2 and 3, almost a mix between their designs, possessing Mecha Sonic I's unpainted body and hand designs, along with Mecha Sonic II's visor, flight capabilities, and some semblance of its opening chest design. Archie labeled it Silver Sonic Ve2.0, while the game version would most likely be a Mecha Sonic model. Metal Sonic would finally make a major return to the main series in Sonic Heroes, with new abilities and a new form, known as Neo Metal Sonic. The exact origin of Neo Metal's ability, copying powers, is unknown, but I would posit that it's Gizoid tech. We know that Eggman had access to Gizoids before the events of Sonic Heroes (Even though Battle is set afterwards because Shadow is there) because he built his own models of them before he built Omega: The Gizoids he built are designated E-121 Phi, while Omega is designated E-123. So, perhaps he upgraded Metal Sonic with Gizoid tech, but it caused him to gain full sentience and go rogue. Neo Metal locks Eggman up, and using his new power to shapeshift, takes on his form. He also briefly takes on the shape of Sonic to kidnap Chocola and Froggy, but nothing comes of this: When Team Rose encounters Sonic, Amy does all the talking and tries to force Sonic to marry her rather than asking him about her friends' missing pets, because Amy is a terrible friend. Sonic never actually finds out that he was implicated in the kidnapping. He spends the rest of the game disguised as Eggman, using his battles with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow to assimilate their data, allowing himself to gain full power, along with absorbing the data on Chaos from Froggy and Chocola, then uses this to transform into the enormous Metal Overlord. An attempt by three of the teams to hinder it before its transformation is complete fails, allowing it to assume the full form. In this state, Metal appeared to be developing some level of insanity, claiming to be "The real Sonic" and that Sonic was his "loathsome copy", while simultaneous acknowledging that his name was Metal Sonic and that he was "created for the sole purpose of destroying [Sonic]". Despite being able to casually throw around battleships and possessing a host of other dangerous abilities, Metal Overlord was ultimately defeated by Super Sonic, Super Tails, and Super Knuckles, and reverted to its base Metal Sonic form upon defeat. The robot was last seen in the clutches of Omega. Following this event, Metal had a mere three more chronological appearances, in Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, and Sonic Free Riders. Due to the Rivals series appearances being devoid of personality, and one of them being controlled by someone else, it is my personal belief that the robot that appeared there was not the same Metal Sonic that had appeared from Sonic CD to Sonic Heroes. The Metal Sonic that appears in the first Sonic Rivals title is a mindless drone that works for Eggman Nega. This Metal Sonic was unsuccessful in hindering Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and Silver as they rushed to stop Eggman Nega from transforming everything in the world into a trading card. Yes, really. That really is the plot to Sonic Rivals. In the sequel, Eggman has a Metal Sonic of his own, which is also a drone and is controlled directly by him. Nega returns as well, and this time brings with him a new Metal Sonic of his own. Really, it's just the one we're familiar with wearing a new coat of paint, and it's even destroyed by the one that Eggman uses. I would like to posit that this robot, Metal Sonic 3.0, is the same entity as the drone Nega used in the first game, only upgraded. Metal Sonic's final appearance so far is in Sonic Free Riders. He once again appears in disguise, following Team Dark as E-10000B, and entering the races with them. He is revealed to be Metal Sonic after the disguise malfunctions and appears to explode. Once again, Metal has a personality, is obsessed with defeating Sonic, and acts separately from Eggman. This is why I believe him to be the same Metal Sonic from CD through to Heroes, which would explain why he is following Team Dark, because he was last seen with them. Although Metal is defeated at the end of the story, he is not destroyed, and flies off. Metal Sonic is almost certainly going to appear in the 25th anniversary game, but given SEGA and Pontaff's lax attitude to continuity, it will likely be just as an Eggman minion. In that case, I'll treat him as the same robot from Rivals 2.

[The Red Stranger: This can include concepts you enjoy that others do not commonly do as well.] Buckle up, I'm about to say somewhat nice things about Ken Penders. Let's talk about one of the comic's best villains, and a rather unsung one at that. This guy: This pirate-looking guy, for those not in-the-know, is Patch D'Coolette, Antoine's counterpart from the Anti-dimension, and his contributions to the series are often ignored, because the Archie fandom has a bad habit of revisionism. Since his plans were put into motion primarily during what is now regarded as the comic's dork age, the whole story tends to be regarded as "rubbish" because it was written by Ken Penders. And while its execution was flawed, it wasn't awful, and the plan itself was gloriously devious. Patch started out as Antoine's exact opposite, a fearless, merciless warrior, always scheming to get himself on top. His rivalry with Scourge was also a mirror of Antoine's rivalry with Sonic. Whereas the latter was generally rather pathetic and Sonic always came out on top, Patch was always one step ahead of Scourge as far as schemes went- In fact, Scourge got so mad that Patch beat him to the idea of "Wear a fake eyepatch to look rugged" that he actually put Patch's eye out, which just highlighted things- Scourge was impulsive, violent, and brutal, while Patch was precise, skilled, and a schemer. But what makes him a good villain was not that, it was his master plan, which ran from somewhere between Issue 125 and issue 130 all the way to issue 156. For a little backstory, at the time, the comic had a bit of a writer edit war going on- Karl Bollers was the head writer on Sonic at the time, while Penders was working on his infamous Knuckles comic. Well, the latter got cancelled, and Penders was brought back to the Sonic title, and, being the senior writer, kinda took the rug out from under Bollers' feet and started imposing his own plans for the Sonic comic, incompatible with Bollers', onto the stories. In particular, they clashed over Antoine. After Sonic's return from space, Antoine had apparently turned into a colossal jerk and broken up with Bunnie for no real reason, something that Penders did not like, and to be fair to him, not a lot of people did. Bollers' plan was for Antoine to keep getting worse and eventually become a villain, while Penders decided to not do that and have Antoine actually be Patch. To his credit, he didn't immediately show Patch gloating about impersonating Antoine in private, and he didn't show off Patch's scheme until after Bollers was gone. If Penders deserves crap from fans for this, then Flynn deserves it for doing the same to Bollers and Penders' plans for characters like Fiona. Either way, we got the story with Patch, which worked a lot better. Here's his plan, and how it worked: He began by switching places with Antoine, and working to ingratiate himself with Max, while breaking things off with Bunnie because being in a relationship with her would hinder his plans. People would be suspicious if he broke up with her just when the issue of Sally's marriage came up, so he had to do that early. See, like Robotnik, Patch intended to take over the kingdom by abusing its own hierarchies. Unlike Robotnik, he was not going to get himself into a position of power and then stage a coup, he would instead get himself married to Sally, and then bump off Max to take the throne legitimately. Whether it was due to an actual law of the kingdom, or one of those unpleasant things about Max's own attitude toward his daughter, it was often made clear that Sally could not be queen unless she had a king, so Patch decided to use that to get himself made an actual king. While his plan was briefly put on hold by Sonic's return, Sally's frayed mental state soon saw to it that her relationship with Sonic ended explosively, putting him back on track. It's also possible that Patch actually "helped" the relationship collapse, abusing Sally's trust and her fear of losing Sonic again to "advise" her to demand his retirement, and insinuating that not doing so would be "selfish", that he would be doing it for his own enjoyment rather than the good of the people, but that's just theory talk. His plan with Max worked pretty well- "Antoine" got promoted to Commander, and was appointed to be Max's bodyguard during the world tour, during which he started poisoning the king, causing a decline in his health. After several failed negotiations, he upped the dosage, forcing Max to abandon the tour and return home. Being the monarch's new right-hand-man, he was now a shoe-in for the soon-to-be-vacant throne, and the marriage was demanded by Max right before he lapsed into a coma. And it worked. Sonic's attempts to talk to Sally are foiled by Patch blocking him from seeing her, and he was able to manipulate her into agreeing to her father's wish, the wedding going off without a hitch, and Sally, for her part in this, appeared broken, allowing Patch to have Sonic carted off by guards when he attempted to put a stop to things at the reception. Patch was seconds away from finally killing Max when things came crashing down. While it seemed that Sonic had just protested about Sally's agreement while at the same time macking on Fiona, he had in fact gone off and found Elias, and tried to convince him to come back and put a stop to proceedings, so that Sally would not be forced to marry Patch. While initially reluctant, he soon changed his mind at the prodding of Megan, his wife. He returned, and announced his intention to take the throne, and, being the legitimate heir, bypassed Patch's claim via Sally, testing the waters to see if Patch would react. Patch faked acceptance, deciding to kill Elias' wife and child as well as him, but was ultimately foiled when Sonic spotted the needle of poison that he intended to use to kill Elias, revealed his true identity, and kicked him back to Moebius, bringing Antoine back at the same time. Oh, and during all of this, he also fatally poisoned Antoine's father, just because he could. With all this in mind, I do think that, honestly, Patch was one of the best villains the comic had. He didn't have fancy powers, he didn't have an army or a superweapon, and he didn't beat the tar out of anyone to show off how dangerous he was. But with a few bottles of poison, knowledge of the Kingdom of Acorn's antiquated succession rules, and Max's prejudices, he was inches away from being the legitimate, crowned ruler of the Kingdom. His machinations, once laid bare, were equal parts monstrous and horrifying, some of the most evil things displayed in the whole run, his manipulation of Max and Sally, his casual disregard for Bunnie and the rest of the people he pretended to be friend of, the murder of Armand, all while posing as a face that all of them loved and trusted, along with his casual use of poison to get his own ends brought a level of evil far more visceral and real than any of Eggman's more fantastical plots, or Scourge's posturing and bluster. And I think i even works on a level that affects the reader too. If nothing else, Sally finally caving and hopelessly going along with "what's expected of her by her father and her husband", just like Max always wanted, opens up a bit of a pit in my stomach, just because of how wrong it feels. Villains these days aren't on the same level as Patch. Flynn spends too much time trying to make them wacky or cool or sympathetic. Patch wasn't that. He was pure, unadulterated evil, and it was awesome.

I don't have much to say regarding the first two, but with the third... Make it a full reboot. Reset everything to zero. No half-assed attempt to pretend that the preboot comics matter, no pathetic clinging to the number because it grants them an arbitrary record, just take everything back to basics. Sonic and his ragtag group of friends living in a hidden base and making attacks on the empire of their nemesis, Robotnik. Loose adaptations of the games follow, starting with Sonic 1, then Sonic 2, then CD, and then Sonic 3&K. Other, original stories, to establish the world and address other parts of the classics would be mixed in and put into side-stories. Universe would be cancelled, and instead become a second release of the main title per month, at least until such a time that there were enough characters to tell SU stories again. The status quo would crumble with the end of Sonic 3's adaptation. With the destruction of the Death Egg, Robotnik's empire would collapse, especially with the doctor presumed dead. EggRobo would become an interim villain at first, supposedly being a copy of Robotnik intended to take over after his death, but he would never quite be the same threat, mostly using repaired versions of Robotnik's own mechs. At the same time, the FF would be dealing with their own personal troubles, namely that they freed Sally's father but he's also a giant prick, along with a few other villains. EggRobo would also turn out to be being remote-controlled by Robotnik himself, using the droid to inact some of his plans from the transitional bit between S3K and SA1. EggRobo would eventually go to Angel Island to try and reclaim Mecha Sonic, but would be destroyed by the rogue warbot. The comic would also have a defined end point- Solaris. The gestalt god's destruction of the timestream would lead to a scene where, after its own death, Sonic would erase the flame that would become it, and cause another reboot, at which point, I'd end my run as head writer and pass it on to someone else.

1) With regards to how Nicole would've been done, almost exactly as Hurst planned.Her just being a computer that gained sentience and developed a fascination with Mobians is nice and all, but her once being a Robian makes it a lot better in my eyes. With regards to her powers, I'd have them be something she had before she got stuck in a computer. Maybe not quite as powerful, but present. We know that her deliberate spells weren't going to be that great- Sonic was supposed to keep remembering, no matter how ahrd she tried to stop him, so I would cast her initial attack on Robotnik to be one of pure fear and rage, not a controlled thing, which would actually cause some permanent damage to his psyche. In turn, this damaged part of his mind would be further aggravated by Sonic, Sally, and the rest of the FF during the war, leading to his deteriorating mental state. 2) Bunnie is a bit more tricky. She was fine in Season 1, but when Season 2 happened, Hurst dropped the ball with regards to her and Rotor. In particular, Bunnie was pushed out of the limelight largely by Dulcy, so I'd give the latter a reduced role. During missions, I'd have her paired off with Sonic, as opposed to with the others, on the logic that she makes a lot of noise and is more suited to wrecking stuff to give Sally and co. an opening or covering the backs of her friends than she is to sneaking around. Outside of the action scenes, give her a lot of time just interacting with the others. She struck me as being the one person in the team that everyone could count on- She had her own troubles over her cyborg parts, but she wasn't neurotic like Sally, shy like Rotor, cowardly like Antoine, basically an orphan since birth like Tails, or putting on a snarky prick persona as a coping mechanism like Sonic. She could be the rock, the irreplaceable core of the team that everyone could be open and honest with.

I think the coup, as it happened, was pretty alright. However, if I could change it, I'd probably make the start less obvious. In the episode, it's not exactly subtle. The streets fill with SWATbots, including that badass-looking blue one that we never saw in anything else, and then Julian smashes his warship into the palace, steps out and announces his intentions. In this case, I'd have the whole thing start much quieter, with people disappearing. Thye just vanish without rhyme or reason, except, of course, they're getting rounded up and roboticized. By the time Max and co. know what's going on, there's already a huge number of Robians. I think this would fit a little more with Robotnik's style. Unlike modern Eggman, Robotnik was not alien to subtlety. We know from Ben Hurst's plans that his first scheme to take over wasn't bombastic at all, it went like so: Step 1: Kidnap Princess' friend Step 2: Turn friend into psychic computer thing. Step 3: Use computer to rewrite everyone's memories so they see Robotnik as the rightful leader. If Nicole hadn't lashed out and erased Robotnik's memories of the plan, he would've taken over without anyone ever knowing that it was a takeover. So I think a more quiet approach would've worked pretty well.

Here's an appropriate one for a largely Sonic-based site. I've had the misfortune of playing Boom, and during one section, I discovered that the rocks that littered the area are not actually solid objects unless you jump on them. If you walk into one, you literally walk into it. Due to the size of the rocks, there were one or two that made both Sonic and Amy look like decapitated heads just sitting on top of boulders. Even more did the same for Tails, or worse, made him look like half a head. Buffles' size meant that he at least got to keep part of his chest.

If I recall correctly, it was a mental thing: The roboticization process only worked perfectly if they really wanted it for some reason. Why this happened was never explained, it was just stated to be a fact. It appears to be a sort of psychosomatic problem, I suppose. But whatever it is, the exact details are a bit... weird.