LaserCrusader

Christian, artist, animator, and an all-around derp. I go by SomeOtherStranger on most other accounts. This blog is mostly inactive, though 'twas formerly used for my random thoughts and occasional artwork. Some of the more active places you can find me include ArtFol and Youtube.

[lasercrusader]

SomeOtherStranger is on Artfol

The social network for artists | See Artfol artwork, posts and more by @SomeOtherStranger

It's been ages since I touched Tumblr but I've since moved on to other platforms, Artfol being one of them. There's also a link to my Neocities there kekek.

(Mainly postin' this 'cause the links in the bio above ain't very apparent).

[lasercrusader]

Another Arbitrary Update + Musing

It’s been another 25 years. I’ve been focusing more on my Neocities, and as a result of social anxiety of making a fool of myself I’ve nixed the Dreamwidth account. I’ve also made an ArtFol account to get my art out where people could maybe see it, or something.

... I’m somewhat on the fence on whether or not I want to use Tumblr at all for my blogging. While it’s great to know that my posts are reaching people, which is a feedback that I don’t really get with Neocities, the issue with feedback is it’s ability to influence behavior.

In that, when I make a post, I can get caught up in how people will respond to it, rather than just posting whatever I want. I may end up trying to make posts that I think will get a response, rather than making posts that are genuine.

That’s kinda the issue with social media is that, by its very design, it tends to influence its users into posting content that creates the most interaction, because interaction is how social media thrives.  At what point am I posting because I want to post vs. posting to see that little notification up top?

I also frequently flip-flop between wanting to keep my world small so I can keep things controlled vs. wanting to expand my horizons and meet new people. Generally this is dependent on whether or not something triggers the anxiety train resulting in a spiral and implosion.

I want to be free, and I want to be safe. I want the safety to be free and the freedom to be safe. Some days I’m not sure which is which, or what I really want. What it means to be free, and what it means to be safe. 

...

All that aside, still on the fence on whether or not I wanna use Tumblr for anything. It’s just my wishy-washy nature I guess. XP

[lasercrusader]

It has been 25 and a half yearssss

I haven’t touched my blog since... idk when but, just gonna say that I’ve since moved to Neocities and Dreamwidth for all my website and blogging needs, so I probably won’t be using this one anymore. 

If you’re curious as to what those places are, Neocities is essentially the spiritual successor to Geocities, which was an old web-hosting place back in like the 90s and 2000s. You basically make your own websites the old-fashioned way with HTML and CSS files, rather than the fancy-pantsy but restrictive website builders most places have. Dreamwidth is an alternative blogging platform that is much more in line with traditional blogging sites than Twitter and Tumblr.

I kinda wanted to take a step back away from the mainstream web, which was becoming a source of anxiety and empty dopamine for me. I haven’t fully broken away, but I think going to places that are inherently a bit more isolated and laid-back is overall better for my sanity and self-satisfaction. 

I have considered making a Tumblr blog focused solely on posting art, but I’ll have to figure out whether doing so will compromise my overall goal of changing how I use the web. 

In any case, I’ll see ya on the flipside!

You can find me at someotherstranger.neocities.org and someotherstranger.dreamwidth.org.

[jackalopiel]

no offence but is this seriously what we're doing for the rest of our lives. like. just work minimum wage and drink soy lattes? be a 4.75/10? I half-heartedly thrift for my clothes and watch the world collapse around me in a very boring and predictable way? sure I can go hike the fucking pacific crest trail and I romanticise my bus ride and listen to hozier or whatever the tiktok girlies say these days. but this can't be it.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Via @thatfriendlyanon

[lasercrusader]

Titan A.E., an impromptu, short, and slightly agitated review

Sometimes I imagine “yo what if I did movie reviews on Youtube and incorporated a character doing the talking like those other Youtubers” but then I usually remember that I’m lazy and that sort of thing would be a lot of work, so...

ANYWAY, most people probably haven’t heard of this movie. Titan A.E. was an animated film made by Fox Animation that flopped so hard that it singlehandedly killed the entire studio. Well, that’s not the entire story, but it’s close enuff. XP

Just a warning, I don’t care for spoilers for this almost 22-year-old film and it’s a very long-winded review that may not be the most coherent or organized. Keep reading at yer own risk I suppose.

For the record, movies don’t always flop because they’re bad. Some movies made during the same-ish time period like Treasure Planet, Iron Giant, and Cats Don’t Dance were really good IMO and deserved to succeed, only flopping because their companies more-or-less purposely screwed them over. 

Is Titan A.E. one of those films?? Well, no, but it’s not terrible either. Here’s the shtick. It’s got a lot of going for it, and honestly it’s interesting enough that I’d want to watch it again sometime. But it’s flaws kinda prevent it from being an actually good film.

The film is, in short, an early 2000s 2D-3D hybrid animated sci-fi film, with Don Bluth and some other guy directing (with Don Bluth being known for a fair number of notable films, with Secret of NIMH and Land Before Time as some of my favorites). It involves humans and aliens and the entire earth being blown up by genocidal aliens, and an adventure through space. Honestly, with my love of sci-fi, animation, and nostalgia for the early 2000s, this film sounds just like the kind of thing I’d like.

So what’s it got going for it? Production value for one. The visuals are honestly impressive for the time (the CG hasn’t aged well but again, impressive for its time). Also potential. They really had a lot of good ideas in this film. There’s some interesting alien designs and settings, some pretty good action at times, etc. Also they apparently made a bunch of those early 2000s alt rock songs just for the movie, and that’s great.

But where did it fail? Story and pacing, big time. At times they literally had all the right ideas but just couldn’t put them together in a way that was well-paced or even cohesive. Other times it felt like the plot and character developments were only done to fill some sort of checkmark like “and the plot/character development has to do this”, without actually doing the work to get from point A to point B in a way that’s cohesive and makes sense. 

Like literally, this is exactly how the character development is in this film. The characters are hardly established in any meaningful way and end up changing their tune without us actually seeing them go through some sort of change. Plenty of moments in the film just feel kinda forced while others awkward.

---

The awkward pacing also applies to the animation. There’s a fair amount of jank that just makes the characters and interactions come off as awkward. It’s either in the way they move or the timing of the way they move. Sometimes characters even come off as over-animated, like they shouldn’t be moving as much as they should be for their particular line or action.

This may come in part from the difference between the aliens and the human characters. The aliens tend to be animated a bit more... lively, like they have a bit more freedom to animate the aliens with more exaggeration. This would likely look just fine on its own, but the humans don’t really have that same degree of exaggeration, so you have this juxtaposition of aliens with exaggerated movement and expression, and the humans being more subdued in terms of movement and expression. This is probably because they used live-action reference for a ton of the humans’ actions and possibly stuck too close to it. 

If it was either one or the other in terms of how they animated their characters, there would probably be less awkwardness. But because they had both, very frequently in the same scenes as one another, it just came off as awkward. The humans either seemed too subtle in expression or the aliens too exaggerated.  

---

Speaking of which, alien designs were pretty good, though a bit hit or miss in some places. I feel like there was an overemphasis on just, grungy, ugly aliens with no color. These kinds of aliens are fine, but when ALL of your aliens are like this, it almost makes them seem all the same despite their design variety. They’ve all got the same sort of “ugly” going on. 

Also, one of the main characters, Stith, has incredibly disproportionate legs that are always bent in an awkward position and its... awkward. I thought she was crouch-walking when she first showed up due to being like really tall or something, but no, that’s her normal default state at all times. I think they kinda sacrificed some appeal for the sake of uniqueness, when perhaps a better balance could have been struck. In either case, with legs like those you’d think you’d have her use them in combat to show that they serve some sort of purpose other than looking weird. Honestly, it might’ve worked out better if they gave her a torso more proportionate to her legs, and maybe not quite-so-humanlike because she literally has boobs so it resembles a human-torso even more so. NOTHING meshes together. 

(This be the broad in question. Honestly as a character she was alright, but suffered from the usual problem of literally none of these characters being given a lot of depth. This is especially true for her and Gune, as they’re both supporting characters and thus given even LESS attention).

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Speaking of alien designs, the Drej, the main antagonists, are horrible. They’re basically these weird robotic-looking 3D models that are ENTIRELY BLUE and GLOWING. This is BAD because I can barely tell what they look like, and not in the cool “oh no its some eldritch horror” kind of way, more in the “wow I literally can’t tell what’s going on” kind of way. 

(This is a still image. Most of these times the guys are moving around or there are quick scene cuts. That’s not to even mention that I watched this on VHS, where the details likely got even more smudged).

Speaking of the Drej, as a threat...? They’re pretty poorly established in the sense of... what exactly their place is in the universe. Are they an empire? Are they some eldritch beings who destroy other species that get too advanced? What are their relations with the other species that aren’t humans?? Literally none of these questions are answered in any remote way because they never ever decide to establish ANYTHING.

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On that note, the plot as a whole is barely coherent. Like, when you REALLY think critically about it and its various twists and turns, it makes no sense. Nothing that should be explained is ever explained. Nothing that should be established is ever established. Nothing that should be foreshadowed is ever foreshadowed. Things like that.

Basically, it seems that they’ve put all of their time, energy and focus into making the film look amazing and being different and edgy, without giving a hoot about the story. The story itself is kinda standard in terms of overall structure, being a hero’s journey with the protagonist having fatherly abandonment angst (though with no mention of his mother anywhere, like not even once). This kind of thing isn’t new, but that isn’t a problem. What is the problem is that they didn’t put the story together in a way that’s actually good. 

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And on yet another note, the worldbuilding is almost non-existent in terms of the larger context surrounding the setting. Like it’s still got smaller details, like the main character working a crappy scrap-collecting job with a bunch of other aliens... but anything detailing the larger, surrounding context that actually grounds the smaller things to some sort of foundation is completely absent. Like oh hey, the Drej exist, but in what relation to everyone else? Oh hey, humans and aliens coexist, but how and under what circumstances, and what were things like before vs after Earth went boom? Oh hey, there’s a slave trade, but how legal is that crap?? Oh hey, are there any governments or authorities at all??? Etc., etc., these things are completely absent. The setting is vague and thus there is no larger context in which to frame our characters’ actions, or anybody’s actions for that matter. It doesn’t matter if your characters are saving the world or just chilling, not having an actual context for their actions and activities takes away a lot of the weight from their actions.

Like the first Star Wars did a much better job of actually establishing its overall larger setting, both through the things that it showed and the things it established through character dialogue (quite naturally I might add). All the smaller details have a larger overarching foundation that ties it all together. With Titan A.E. you get literally NOTHING that establishes what the overall larger setting is like, AT ALL.

And you don’t even need to reveal everything at once, or even everything. As long as you reveal some things in ways that are natural, in ways that build and flesh out your world, in ways that establish context and establish stakes, then yer doing something right and doing a lot more than Titan A.E.

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Okay but, overall, the film isn’t terrible. Like this is something I could feasibly watch again. The films I consider really bad are the ones I can’t stand watching again and hate the fact that I ever watched in the first place. 

As for more detail on what I liked about the film... aside from the overall spectacle being great, there were a few sci-fi moments that were cool. For example, when two of the characters needed to break out of an escape pod to enter the vacuum of space in order to reach the ship, one of the characters told the other to exhale, which is an often overlooked detail in the vacuum of space that holding your breath is actually a bad thing to do due to pressure differences between your lungs and the vacuum. They also used a fire extinguisher for course correction and propulsion, which is cool.

(Unfortunately, it’s very obvious that the characters were animated taking a deep inhale and holding it in. The lip-sync for the second “exhale” even seems to match “inhale” better. It seems likely that they animated the scene first and then discovered that holding your breath in space is bad, then changed up the dialogue and altered some of the lip-sync in an attempt to fix it but didn’t have the time to reanimate the part and just hoped people wouldn’t catch it).

Some of the characters had fun moments. Stith had her violent tendencies, Gune his... gooniness, and Preed just overall charisma and wit. The main cast wasn’t that bad, they just weren’t fleshed out enough. With the exception of the human captain Joseph Korso, who goes from decent guy to dirty traitor out of nowhere with no foreshadowing, and is a heartless bastard by the end of the film but gets a predictable self-sacrifice redemption that also kinda just comes out of nowhere because just earlier he literally expressed the desire to kill Gune and Stith off and just randomly became remorseful when he was about to fall off a cliff and protagonist boi still wanted to save his arse because they had some bonding time even though his true self seems really nasty and just... THEY WROTE THIS GUY LIKE A FREAKING LIGHT SWITCH, OKAY?!?!

Oh yeah, the film has the tendency to just sorta... forget characters for a hot second at times. One glaring example being captain jerknugget sacrificing himself to help save the human race, and afterwards is never shown nor mentioned again, like the characters don’t even reflect on him at all at the ending. 

Goodness freaking gravy, I can’t talk about the good points without mentioning where they went wrong. That’s kind of the case with the entire film. For every good thing there’s something else holding it back.

Honestly, something tells me this film’s production wasn’t exactly a piece of cake lol. Just skimming over the Wikipedia article on it is enough to tell me that they didn’t exactly have the best conditions for making this film any better than they did. A lot of its faults are likely due to development troubles rather than sloppiness, but faults are faults and honestly, I think part of it was prioritizing the film’s visual appeal over its story as if the former would compensate for the latter. Though they did apparently do a lot of outsourcing so maybe they just didn’t have the time? I mean, the entire film was literally just dropped on the animation studio like “here, we wanted to make a sci-fi movie but it didn’t work out so you guys give it a shot”. Honestly that plus whatever time constraints they had probably did it. 

In some paradoxical way, I still like the film despite slamming my head over the terrible writing and pacing. Is it the good parts of it? The potential? Or maybe my biases towards the genre, medium and time-period of the movie as a whole? 

In any case, if you want a good animated sci-fi flick from the early 2000s with an actually well-written story about an angsty guy with father abandonment issues and a journey through space with some assorted alien characters, watch Treasure Planet. XP

BUT IF YOU WANT A TOTAL TRAINWRECK OF A FILM WHO’S EXISTENCE IS A RATHER CURIOUS THING BUT STILL PERHAPS INTERESTING TO WATCH, try Titan A.E. lol.

[lasercrusader]

Happy Easter, Jesus Christ is risen.

[lasercrusader]

Sonic Movie 2: Further Thoughts on the After Credits Scene (BIG SPOILERS)

I don’t even have to say it but, spoilers ahead, read at your own risk. This one is the big one.

I had posted a lot of my thoughts on the after-credits scene in a previous post: https://lasercrusader.tumblr.com/post/681373160542781440/thoughts-on-sonic-movie-2-electric-boogaloo

But the sheer implications of this scene alone is pretty big, so let’s get into it.

The scene establishes right away that Shadow the Hedgehog was a product of a certain Project Shadow that occurred 50 years ago. This matches up very well with his original backstory, and I think that despite its dark nature, they will implement Gerald, Maria, and their untimely demises at the hands of the government. Why? Well, aside being central to Shadow’s character, we have Sonic and Knuckles to consider.

In this movie universe, Sonic and Knuckles are both characters that had lost everything at a young age due to some tragedy. 

Knuckles was driven by his anger towards Sonic and his duty to his tribe which led him to making some very big errors in judgement, which is similar to how Shadow was driven by his anger towards humanity and his perceived promise to Maria which led to him trying to fulfill Gerald’s revenge plan.

Meanwhile, Sonic had lost his only family due to people coming after him, similar to how Shadow lost his entire family due to people coming after him. The Echidnas wanted Sonic’s power, and the government feared Shadow’s power. Longclaw is wounded by an arrow while getting Sonic to safety and stays behind to ensure he escapes, which directly parallels Maria getting shot while getting Shadow to safety and staying behind in order to ensure he escapes. 

All three of these characters know what it’s like to be alone and not have anybody to share their grief and pain with. All three of these characters share common ground and experiences. It’s perhaps through these shared experiences that they come to understand each other and Shadow is eventually redeemed.

And where would Tails fit into all of this? His past experiences aren’t much like Shadow’s, but it’s possible that he’ll remind Shadow of Maria and that'll cause Shadow to open his heart a little. Only thing I could really think of, because otherwise Tails might get a little left-out in the character interactions. Hopefully they won’t leave our favorite two-tailed boi behind.

.....

As much as it’d be really awesome to see Shadow join the bro-squad with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, it’s very likely that Shadow will sacrifice himself to save the planet like he did in SA2, which will cut the bro-time pretty short.

And it was this that made me realize a possibility both amazing and dreadful. What if Shadow actually dies for good? What if he finally finds new family and friends, only to die in order to protect them?

It would be an insanely gutsy move to kill him off for good, but it’d give the story a lot of impact and weight, and it’d definitely throw the fans for a loop. Everyone would see his sacrifice coming but NOBODY would see its permanence coming.

Anyway, that’s only a possibility. There’s really no telling what they’ll do.

For all we know, they could bring him back in a miniseries where he’s recovered by GUN (with or without amnesia) and he becomes an agent for them, working alongside Rouge and Omega, and maybe even encounters the Black Arms and discovers more of his backstory or something. But that’s just me spitballing.

On another note, with the possibility of Jim Carrey retiring after Sonic 2, we face the possibility of Eggman not returning. While Shadow COULD be the sole villain of Sonic 3, I highly doubt they’ll go that route. Judging by Agent Stone being in the end-credits scene overhearing GUN talking about Project Shadow, it seems like they’re setting him up to replace Eggman if Jim Carrey decides to retire. 

One possible issue with that is that Agent Stone teaming up with the heroes to save the planet has a lot less impact than Eggman teaming up with the heroes to save the planet. Not to mention that even if Eggman was still around, the differences between movie and game Eggman still changes the nature of the team-up. Honestly, aside from Shadow’s character arc and sacrifice, there’s a lot of aspects of SA2 that they simply aren’t going to be able to capture, so it’s for the best that they deviate from it. They may just have Agent Stone be there to fulfill the role of “smart human controlling robots” or at least fulfill the role of waking up Shadow. And even if he’s teamed up with Shadow, he doesn’t really have the character depth for his interactions with the other characters to be particularly meaningful, so it’d be a lot better for Shadow to take most of the spotlight. 

In that regard, it’s not likely for Agent Stone to be a major part of any team-up, unless they decide to make his character deeper.

It’s ALSO possible that GUN will be the antagonist that Shadow teams-up with. Like maybe GUN awakens Shadow and puts him up against Sonic (because they still perceive him as a threat) while also gathering the Chaos Emeralds to keep them out of everybody else’s hands. Maybe GUN still fears Shadow and they plan on betraying him as soon as possible. Shadow willingly works for GUN but with the intention of betraying them, and as soon as he gets all the Chaos Emeralds he enacts Gerald’s revenge plan. There isn’t really anything to indicate this possibility as likely, but it’s interesting to think about.

Other thoughts concerning Sonic 3:

Will Rouge be a thing and will there be a Master Emerald shard-hunting subplot?

Will GUN frame Sonic for Shadow’s actions in order to keep Project Shadow secret?

Will the Space Colony ARK still be a thing?

How will they explain Shadow’s creation?

Will Tails get a mech?

City Escape? Low budget flights with no food or movies? 

How much SA2 are we talking about here?

Will Amy be a character at any point in time??

THEY BETTER PLAY LIVE AND LEARN DURING THE CLIMAX OR SO HELP ME-

[lasercrusader]

Sonic Movie 2: An Interesting Note on Tails (minor spoilers)

Minor spoilers below, read at your own risk.

In the movie, one of Tails’ gadgets creates holograms of himself and others. This gadget was used in two major scenes, giving it quite a bit of emphasis. I was initially confused as to why this particular gadget existed, as there was no counterpart for it in the games...

BUT THEN IT HIT ME. They most likely took inspiration from Tails’ original inspiration, the kitsune. For those who don’t know, kitsune are multi-tailed foxes from Japanese folklore who are known for their intelligence and have various supernatural powers, with one of those powers being the ability to create illusions.

In other words, this hologram tech is most likely an adaptation of the kitsune’s illusion ability. If that’s true then that’s so freaking cool, and I have no clue how such an idea never made it into the games.

[lasercrusader]

Thoughts on Sonic Movie 2: Electric Boogaloo (SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

At this point I might as well just become a Sonic blog since it’s all I ever talk about but WHATEVER, DON’T CARE, I GOTTA GET MY THOUGHTS OUT ON THIS BECAUSE I HAVE NO FRIENDS WHO ARE NEARLY AS INTERESTED IN SONIC AS I AM, SO HERE WE GO.

ALSO SPOILERS. DON’T READ UNLESS YOU WANNA GET SPOILED. 

Things I particularly liked:

They incorporated some of the characters’ original backstories, like Tails being inspired by Sonic and Knuckles growing up as the last of his kind.

Tails and Knuckles’ characterizations were great. 

Tails was so freaking cute and pretty darn cool, and they successfully made him a nerd without sacrificing his other character traits. 

Knuckles was so freaking cool and surprisingly funny with his naivety; Knuckles was originally characterized as naive and gullible rather than stupid, so it’s cool to see this movie stay true to that idea.

There was a lot more focus on the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman than the other characters. 

Actual lore and worldbuilding, and incorporation of some of the original lore with a very interesting twist on it. 

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles teaming up and then being legitimate bros by the end of the film. I could see them having an amazing friend/family dynamic. Seeing these three in action together was so hype. TEAM SONIC HYPE.

The mostly human segment involving veterinarian gal and her sister was pretty fun. The preceding shenanigans were also pretty fun.

GUN being a thing was particularly hype.

Super Sonic was really freaking hype.

Eggman references Sonic Adventure when he yells “CHAOS IS POWER!” upon harnessing the Master Emerald.

Sonic and Tails dancing together was amazing, as was the fireplace scene afterwards. SONIC FINALLY BREAKDANCES, and seeing Tails do it too is so cool, as well as seeing them have some legitimate fun together. Very wholesome.

The baseball scene was really great and wholesome.

The end-credits were a step-up from the original, having some great pixel art with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles looking fantastic. On the downside, they still use generic video-game sound effects, but overall the credits were really great. 

Tails’ full name was said at least once.

Sonic vs. Knuckles was pretty darn cool. Seeing Sonic get serious and go all out against Knuckles was pretty lit. Sonic using the spin-dash was awesome to see.

Though the fight choreography could be better, and honestly I don’t think they utilized the characters’ full potentials. Sonic should’ve learned by this point that he needs to use his speed to outmaneuver Knuckles instead of rushing head-on all the time. There was also a lack of any really stand-out moves that you would normally see from the characters, like Sonic’s kicks and breakdance style and Knuckles’ spirals, digging and uppercuts. 

Sonic using a move similar to his bounce move from Adventure 2 was really cool though. 

They remembered Knuckles likes grapes. That’s kinda cool.

It’s not a Sonic game/TV show/movie unless Tails crashes his plane at least once (jk, but it’s a fun running theme).

Tails is always cool in a plane, and it was cool to see the Tornado in some shape or form, even if it’s just a random bi-plane in-universe. Hoping Tails will get another plane by the third movie lol, maybe the Tornado 2?

Things I particularly disliked:

The soundtrack. Again with the soundtrack. As far as I could tell, there was literally no Sonic music except for Tom’s ringtone. Not even a leimotif. If something was there, it was either too subtle (which would defeat the point) or I couldn’t catch it in the mix of the voices and sound effects (which would probably mean it’s too subtle). The soundtrack itself was, aside from the licensed songs, generic movie orchestral arrangements. It not only lacked Sonic identity, it just plain lacked identity and didn’t really stick out at all. Contrast this with the soundtrack of Sonic OVA, which didn’t have any arrangements of game themes but were still very much Sonic in their style, had a lot of identity, and accentuated many moments.

One missed opportunity was Sonic turning Super Sonic. It was an awesome moment, but that’s usually where the awesome music is supposed to kick in; something that would stick out and make the scene even more memorable. But the music wasn’t anything special, so the moment didn’t hit as hard as it could’ve.

Apparently the composer explains his reasoning for lack of Sonic music as: “In an interview with Polygon, Junkie XL shared that it was not possible to rely solely on video game music in the film because it didn't help enhance the story. ‘It would sound too small for the big action scenes, it would not cover enough emotion when Sonic is all alone in his cave and he has no friends. There's a lot of that to it[.]’”. I strongly disagree with this. The games from Adventure-onward used music to great advantage for their stories, and even without the Adventure-era, it should still be possible to at LEAST work in some motifs.

And theoretically speaking, you should be able to remix songs to fit scenes. Ech. 

And associating certain themes with certain characters would’ve been cool, so you could interweave their leimotifs throughout to accentuate certain moments. ECH.

Like seriously though, the teaser for Sonic 2 incorporating the Emerald Hill scene really got my hopes up. 

Source for the above quote: https://www.newsweek.com/sonic-hedgehog-2-soundtrack-1696304

Tails doesn’t get a whole lot of action scenes, and when he does finally enter the fray directly at the end, he mostly relies on a laser gun with only a handful of other moves. Would’ve been cool to see a bit more variety from him, considering the gadgets he had in his in bag and in the games. 

As for being actually able to throw hands directly, I could see that being a thing in the third movie considering he’ll have spent time with Sonic and Knuckles.

No Metal/Mecha Sonic, and with Shadow being introduced so early, it’s unlikely we’ll see a robot Sonic doppelganger (unless the TV series does something). Though with Knuckles being an antagonist for much of the film, it might’ve been too clunky to incorporate. 

Only new Badniks were the Buzz Bomber-based ones. Not too big of a deal but eh.

Kinda feel like the human characters stole some of the spotlight from Tails and Knuckles during the climax when they save Sonic. It was still a good moment for those characters, but it kinda came at the expense of Tails and Knuckles who were straight-up absent that entire scene until Eggman nearly killed Sonic and his adopted parents. Would’ve really sold Tails’ and Knuckles’ bond with Sonic further if they were the ones to come to Sonic’s rescue.

Things of note that I have no freaking clue:

The end credits scene with Shadow the freaking Hedgehog. I knew that with GUN being a thing, Shadow would inevitably follow, but I didn’t think he’d be introduced so soon, nor did I think they were going to stay as close (as far as I can tell) to his original backstory. This could have wide-reaching implications. I’m still iffy on what will amount to some adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2 happening so soon, but if they execute it right they could introduce the heart of Shadow’s character and story to a whole new audience. 

Though the question is, will they manage to pull it off? SA2′s story is pretty dark, and comparatively speaking the films haven’t gone that far yet. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that they brought Shadow on so soon because he’s the second-most popular Sonic character. But who knows, maybe they know what they’re doing.

How the heck are they going to adapt Sonic Adventure 2? Is Rogue going to be a character? What about Amy? Will Adventure receive an adaptation?

It’s possible that the Sonic TV series could adapt Adventure by having Sonic, Tails and Knuckles travel to other worlds, which is how they could meet people like Amy and Big without them coming to the human world. Though it’d be kinda hard to have Gamma be a character if Eggman isn’t going to be around after Sonic 2.

I freaking swear if they don’t play Live and Learn at some point during Sonic 3-

Hopefully the 3rd movie incorporates SA2 music in general. 

The Master Emerald was created after the Chaos Emeralds, which seems to maybe match up with the lore, but in this case it was created FROM the Chaos Emeralds... interesting. And then the Master Emerald breaks and the Chaos Emeralds come out. Cool. Then the Emeralds go flying off after Sonic de-transforms. Cool. But then Knuckles repairs the Master Emerald (which is really cool as it references the Adventure series), but then the Master Emerald is now its own thing and we don’t know what it does but it’s still important...? A lot of things there weren’t really clarified but, I guess the exposition for those things will come next film.

Eggman teleports with the Master Emerald’s power, i.e. Chaos Control. I almost wanted to blurt out “HE CAN USE CHAOS CONTROL!”

Kind of wondering if they’ll ever incorporate Tikal’s prayer. 

A little bummed they seemingly aren’t going to adapt Adventure.

Sonic and Knuckles probably have innate Chaos powers due to their lightning motif.

Speaking of such, I'm still not a huge fan of the lightning stuff and still think it would’ve been cooler if their portrayals were closer to the games (where Sonic’s speed directly translated to force, which allows him to literally weaponize the air and gives him a wind motif, and also gives him reasons to limit his speed in certain situations). There’s a lot of cool potential there that simply won’t be capitalized on.

If they’re adapting Sonic Adventure 2, then chances are they’ll also give Tails his mech, which would be cool, but I’m afraid that Tails may not get an opportunity to just straight-up throw hands. I swear pretty much every film or TV adaptation of Tails (except Sonic OVA) sleeps on his ability to throw hands. But who knows.

Annnd that’s probably it. Glad I got that out of my system. I really like the two movies and think they’re pretty good, but I still think they could be a lot better. I’m hoping someday there’ll be some Sonic film media that really embraces all the things that make the Sonic series so cool (aside from Sonic OVA which already kinda does that), but as far as major motion pictures go, these movies are doing a lot of things right. They’re also introducing some interesting takes on the characters that we likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I’m really looking forward to where they’ll take Sonic, Tails and Knuckles’ character dynamics in the future. It seems they’re setting them up to be real bros, and that’s something that would be really cool to see.

To be quite honest, that’s probably one thing the mainline series is missing: delving deeper into the interpersonal relationships of these characters, and a glimpse of what they’re doing on their off-time. I wouldn’t want the games to have Sonic, Tails’ and Knuckles’ relationship exactly like that of the movies, but it would be cool to see some mainline material go more in-depth with them. I think even the mainline versions of the characters have the potential to be bros, though obviously it wouldn’t be the same as the movie versions.

Okay, that’s actually probably it. I definitely look forward to watching it again. I honestly can’t appreciate movies fully if I’m watching them in the theater, so I think the second time around may be even better. XP

In any case, I think this movie may have inspired me to work on some Sonic creative projects... we’ll see I guess lol.

[tanglecolors]

I need help paying rent so im offering something like the examples like above for 80$ a piece, paypal only! Dm me or email at [email protected] to claim a slot!

[tanglecolors]

I need about three of these comms to pay my rent next month, any help or signal boosting would be awesome!!

[lasercrusader]

Peter Rabbit: Anime Edition. I drew for something fun and quick so I didn’t put much work into the BG. I was initially going for a shonen take but it became shojou so... maybe next time lol.

The background photo was taken by Taryn Elliot and was obtained from here: https://www.pexels.com/photo/pink-bicycle-parked-beside-a-cherry-blossom-tree-4198566/

Said photo is free to use without attribution, according to the website anyway. I'm not going to be making a habit of using CC images for backgrounds, but in this particular case I thought it would contribute to the absurdity.

[lasercrusader]

Thoughts on Surge and Kit #3: Elemental Affinities and Motifs

Continuing again from the previous post... it isn’t super prominent, but there’s a slight theme of elemental affinities when it comes to certain Sonic characters. 

For example, when comparing the two, Sonic has been likened to the wind while Knuckles to the earth in terms of personalities, but this also applies to their abilities. Sonic uses his sheer speed to weaponize air, giving him a variety of wind-based attacks. Knuckles uses his sheer strength to weaponize the earth, giving him a variety of earth-based attacks. (Though, it’s worth noting that Knuckles has some fire/explosion attacks resulting from the sheer friction his fists generate when punching, but he isn’t generally associated with fire).

Knuckles has many parallels and contrasts with Sonic because he’s one of Sonic’s rivals. Blaze is similarly Sonic’s rival, having many parallels and contrasts to him, and she was similarly given an elemental motif through her pyrokinesis. This is very prominently shown in her battle with Sonic, where Sonic uses wind attacks against Blaze’s fire attacks. 

Tails, for the most part, shares his elemental motif with Sonic, wind. This makes sense as Tails is a character that takes strongly after Sonic. Like Sonic, Tails is one of the speedier characters, and uses his speed (primarily through his tails) to weaponize wind. (It’s also worth noting that Tails has a slight association with electricity due to his gadgets and some attacks in Sonic Heroes).

(As a side note, it’s possible that Marine has water powers, but this isn’t fully confirmed. It would make sense as she’s meant to be Blaze’s sidekick and a counterpart to Tails).

(As another side note, there’s possibly some parallels between Chaos and Sonic. Chaos’s color scheme is similar to Sonic’s (green eyes, blue body), he has his own super form and a strong association with the Chaos Emeralds, Gerald sought to mimic Chaos to create the ultimate lifeform, and his water powers makes him an excellent foil to Sonic who can’t swim).

...

With all of that established, lets take a look at Surge and Kit, whose abilities are directly related to some element. Unlike Sonic and Tails, who use their physical abilities to manipulate an element directly around them, Surge and Kit exercise a direct control over their elements. Surge directly generates and controls electricity, while Kit directly controls water. 

These elements don’t necessarily directly parallel or contrast wind, but it’s probably meant to parallel Sonic and Tails in the way that Blaze’s fire parallel’s Sonic’s wind. 

This would also mean that their elements might have something to do with their personalities, so let’s take a look. Surge is very energetic, driven, and aggressive, matching her electricity fairly well. She, like lightning, will take a path and brute force her way through it. 

Kit on the other hand is passive and obedient, but adaptable due to his intelligence and analytical abilities, which suits water fairly well as it is passive on its own but easily moved by outside forces, and will take any shape according to outside forces. 

There’s also a key difference in their powers that tied into Surge’s independent nature and Kit’s dependent nature. Surge can generate electricity at any time and does not need an outside source, but Kit can only control water and needs a source of water to control. This makes him reliant on nearby water sources like his Hydro Pak. 

These characters haven’t been around for very long, but I have a theory that Kit is likely a lot stronger than he knows; he’s mainly being held back by his toxic dependence on Surge and Starline, which may also be represented by his Hydro Pak. His Hydro Pak draws moisture from the air for him so that he has water to manipulate, and he may think himself helpless without it or a nearby water source... but what if he has the capability to draw moisture from the air himself, he just doesn’t do it because he doesn’t know or think that he can?

Both of their elements coincidentally relate to two of the Elemental Shields, the Thunder Shield and the Bubble Shield. I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or not, as they sorta form a trio alongside Starline (who has some parallels to Knuckles due to being based on the glitch character **********) but he doesn’t have any fire powers or anything. 

As a side note, it seems highly likely that Surge is partially created from Sonic’s DNA, due to sharing some of his abilities and being a similar species. This is likely because it’s confirmed that Starline used some of Tails’ hair (and therefore his DNA) in the creation process of the two, which was most definitely used for Kit. This would make the two genetically related to Sonic and Tails, at least to an extent. 

I’m particularly interested in what implications this could have for Surge. As Sonic is considered an “ultimate lifeform” thanks to his mastery over controlling Chaos energy, does this mean Surge could potentially have a similar trait if she’s partially based on Sonic’s DNA? Of course, she isn’t likely to have a Super form due to SEGA’s mandates, but this may not prevent her from tapping into Chaos Control. 

And speaking of Chaos energy... what exactly did Starline do to their genetic makeup to give them their powers? It might have some sort of connection to Chaos energy, given Kit’s water powers are reminiscent of Chaos 0, and Surge’s electric abilities are slightly reminiscent of Shadow’s raw Chaos abilities (in that they both generate and control energy). It’s really just pure speculation, but it’s interesting that he chose Tails’ (and very likely Sonic’s) DNA specifically. It might be due to Tails having frequent exposure to the Chaos Emeralds and even harnessing a Super state in Sonic Heroes. But that’s just speculation.

Anyway, that’s all I got to say on them for now. Kit and Surge were literally just introduced so they could be taken in any direction really, but I think they have a lot of potential as characters. 

[lasercrusader]

Thoughts on Surge and Kit #2: Twisted Mirrors

Continuing from last post about these two, it’s pretty obvious that Surge and Kit are twisted mirrors of Sonic and Tails and their overall dynamic. But this post is more about the why, and how that reflects on a certain Dr. Starline. 

First, let’s talk about the ways Surge and Kit reflect Sonic and Tails. Surge is the confident go-getter with a strong force of personality, and Kit is the thoughtful and helpful sidekick who lacks confidence. Starline, likely being the psychologist-type (more on that later), seemingly isolated these traits as specifically crucial to recreating the Sonic and Tails dynamic... though he seems to have referenced pre-Adventure Tails more for Kit.

But Starline missed a pretty crucial part of that dynamic. Sonic is the kind of person that builds people up. He inspires others around him to change themselves for the better. Tails gained a ton of confidence from being around Sonic, to the point that he even learned to stop being so dependent on him, and even learned that he didn’t need to be exactly like Sonic to be cool and a hero in his own right, and that there are things that only he can do. Sonic helped Tails gain new strengths, and also realize his own unique strengths. Sonic has a strong force of personality, but it’s a positive one.

Surge also has a strong force of personality, but it’s a negative one. Surge doesn’t build up, she breaks down. She ignores and doesn’t value the strengths of others. She’s defiant like Sonic often is, but Sonic defies those who seek to do harm and prevent people from living their lives to the fullest, while Surge is defiant because it’s her way or the highway. Kit, on the other hand, is not inspired by Surge. His concern for her and desire to help her has been artificially constructed. He helps her out of some sense of obligation without any sense of admiration. Despite anything he does, he’ll always be put down by her. His lack of self-confidence can only get worse by being around her. 

...

Another interesting comparison between Kit and Tails is that physically speaking, Kit is pretty much completely reliant on his water gadget. Tails used to be heavily reliant on his gadgets (as seen in Tails Adventure, which takes place before Sonic 1), but his admiration for Sonic and time spent with him led to him developing his physical abilities extensively. He’s less reliant on his gadgets and instead uses them to help out in unique ways. Kit, on the other hand, would have little to fall back on if his water pack was trashed. 

...

Now for Starline. As I mentioned earlier, Starline’s expertise seems to be in psychology, due to his use of hypnotism and his reliance on head-games and manipulation. However, similar to how IDW Eggman is held back by his rivalry with Sonic, Starline is held back by his complete lack of empathy. He simply doesn’t see that Sonic and Tails’ brother-like bond is part of why they make such a great team. They legitimately care for each other, and that care was built upon years of being by each other’s side through thick and thin. It’s quite literally the power of friendship, and it’s something that can’t be created in a lab. 

From what I can tell, Starline has realized that Surge and Kit need some sort of backstory motivation, but so far he still doesn’t seem to realize the importance of legitimate friendship. The toxic relationship between Surge and Kit will inevitably cause them to fail when they go up against Sonic and Tails, either from Surge disregarding Kit or Kit having an emotional breakdown. 

That’s almost all I got to say, though there’s a bit on their elemental affinities I want to talk about. I’ll save that for another post since this one is really long. 

[lasercrusader]

Thoughts on Surge, Kit, and Shadow the Hedgehog

I’m not caught up at all with the IDW Sonic comics (I dropped them sometime during the Metal Virus arc), but I’ve been seeing a lot of Surge and Kit and they piqued my interest, so I looked into them.

Aside from being based on glitches (which is really cool), the have some really interesting parallels with Shadow. Surge and Kit were created as living weapons by Starline, and their memories are being manipulated to further Starline’s agenda. Similarly, the pretense of Project Shadow was to create a living weapon (even if that wasn’t Gerald’s true intentions), and after Gerald went insane, he altered Shadow’s memories of Maria’s death so that Shadow would take revenge on humanity.

I'm not sure where the writers will take Surge and Kit, but it’d be cool to see some interaction between them and Shadow. I think Shadow would legitimately empathize with Kit and Surge if he knew about their circumstances. There’s a lot of potential there, but who knows if the writers intend to go that route (or if they even can considering the strict mandates on Shadow’s personality). 

On another note, there’s another possible common factor between Surge and Shadow. There’s a theory that Gerald based Shadow off of the Hidden Palace mural that depicted Super Sonic. If that’s the case, then Surge and Shadow are both based off of Sonic. Albeit, Surge is more of a twisted mirror of Sonic’s character and a semi-copycat of his abilities, whereas Shadow was created to be an ultimate lifeform that has unsurpassed control over Chaos energy.

In other words, Starline is trying to replace Sonic with Surge, whereas Gerald was trying to create Sonic with Shadow. 

I have more thoughts on Surge and Kit, but that’ll be for another post. 

[lasercrusader]

[lasercrusader]

Sonic Height Charts - Adventure vs. Modern

Adventure-era Sonic characters are actually a different height from Modern-era Sonic characters despite having the same measurements. For example, Tails is 80cm tall, but he is measured up to his ears in his SA1 height chart, while he’s measured up to the top of his head in the Modern height chart:

This makes Modern Tails taller than Adventure Tails, despite both their heights being listed as “80cm”. 

The Modern era tends to measure characters up to the top of their head, ignoring things like ears and spines. So in the case of Sonic, it measures him up to the top of his actual head and ignores the added height from the spines. 

The SA1 sheets tend to measure characters up to their highest point, excluding tufts of hair on the head like Amy’s and Tails’. This means SA1 measures Tails up to the top of his ears and Sonic to the top of his top spine. 

The end result of this is that the SA1 versions of Sonic, Tails and Amy are significantly shorter than the Modern versions. Knuckles remains around the same height due to both Modern and SA1 measuring him the same-ish way. Overall, it has a profound effect on character sizes in relation to each other. 

Observe the hastily edited image below, which has the Modern and Adventure designs side-by-side while lining up the height lines:

The difference in height between the SA1 versions is much greater, and Sonic, Tails and Amy are significantly shorter than their Modern counterparts. SA1 Knuckles isn’t too different in height than Modern Knuckles, but due to the rest of the SA1 characters being significantly shorter, Knuckles stands out more as the tall guy. SA1 Tails on the other hand is really heckin short. 

...

There are a lot of other differences between the Modern designs and the designs from games pre-Unleashed. I just found this one really significant because the number measurement never changed, and yet the way the Modern measurements were interpreted significantly changed the heights and height-relationships of the characters when compared to their SA1 counterparts. 

This in turn makes me wonder how other artists determine the height-relationships between these characters. I’m guessing the Modern height-relationships are more commonly used, but maybe there’s something to be gained by referencing older material?

Either way, I’m probs gonna incorporate the SA1 heights into my headcanon ‘cause I like them better. :P

[lasercrusader]

I can’t be the only on seeing this, right?

Okay, so in The Mandalorian there’s this one Mandalorian dude called “Heavy Infantry Mandalorian”. He’s the one who gives Mando crap for getting Beskar Steel from the Imperials, and then gets in a short knife fight with him: https://youtu.be/hsK3B6xbzUI?t=25

He’s then later shows up with a kickass jetpack and heavy gun to give Mando some support during the Mandalorians vs. Bounty Hunters scene: https://youtu.be/pyHytJpWlaA?t=39

He then later shows up flying alongside Mando’s ship to give him a salute: 

Now, merchandise aside, this guys armor color seems to be a tint of purple. It’s not as noticeable in the dimly lit scenes, but in scenes with more light it’s more evident. 

He’s a purple-tinted and yellow Mandalorian with a big gun over his right shoulder and a jetpack. You know who that reminds me of? 

Vile, the Boba Fett lookalike from the Mega Man X series! Like seriously, when I first saw “Heavy Infantry Mandalorian” with his jetpack, heavy gun, and purple-tinted and yellow armor colors, my thoughts immediately jumped to Vile. 

Of course it’s not one-to-one, but I’d say it’s enough of a resemblance that it’s not a coincidence. I mean, it’s not exactly a coincidence that Vile’s design resembles Boba Fett either. Perhaps the referencing has come full-circle. :P