Exploring Metamorphosis
Let's indulge in a bit of trivia/story expansion now that Metamorphosis is complete. This is an informal post intended for those who enjoy or benefit from complimentary explanation.
Significance of butterflies (& mosquitoes) to Rouge
Butterflies are significant in this story. The idea for this initially came from this Sonic Channel artwork, but there's more to it.
Simply put, Rouge is a bat. She was raised with leathery black batwings in a farm town hostile to bats (irl, bats are pest to livestock, especially the blood-sucking type). To escape this, young Rouge yearned to become a butterfly instead.
Butterflies are the privileged winged insect. Pretty and delicate, we never swat them away. But moths and mosquitoes are not so lucky, and it is the latter which Rouge finds her lived experience aligning with. The kids tease her by calling her a mosquito. Mosquitoes represent her hematophagy (blood-sucking) reality, which she tries so hard to resist.
Additionally, mosquitoes are the vectors for malaria. Specifically, only the female species of the Anopheles variety can harbour and pass on the disease. Not only does Rouge face many female-centric problems, we know that her mother has passed on some of those problems, such as the drinking.
All this to say, Rouge has a persistent belief of being inherently diseased, and that she shouldn't get close to others out of fear of infecting them.
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What is the wasteland?
Short answer:
Abandoned remains of Eggmanland
Long answer:
The wasteland represents the parts of ourselves that we refuse to confront and instead let rot. For our protagonist Rouge, it is literally her stomach. That is why many descriptions of the wasteland's environment use organ imagery (rollercoaster tracks like intestines, belly of the beast) and why the prevailing colour is a rusty red.
In the introduction of the wasteland (Ch. 22: Enter the Duodenum, which refers to the first section of the small intestine), the ground is describe as being powdered in "ruthenium red."
Ruthenium red is a chemical dye used by scientists to highlight cells or tissue, allowing for closer inspection and diagnosis of abnormality. In this sense, we are highlighting the separation of Rouge's stomach from herself as the root problem; her eating disorder.
The wasteland gets its power from being disconnected. Off-limits. The place we don't speak of.
EDs work this way too; an ED disconnects you from your stomach. You are not whole, you are partitioned, and like a parasite, this inflammation eats at you the longer you sit with it.
When infected with a parasite like this, you cannot heal on your own. That is why, despite the story of Metamorphosis focusing on Rouge's silent struggles, her climax requires everyone to come together in the wasteland for her to heal.
When she delivers the final blow to destroy the crystalised barrier, she restores her stomach to herself; she is whole again. But this relief is something that must be maintained, and Rouge knows this. Like a weed, an ED lurks and can sprout up any time if you do not tackle it head on.
To the supporting cast, the wasteland represents other things. To Sonic, it represents his failure to live up to being a hero. To Amy, it represents the idea that no amount of love given can be guaranteed to be returned. To Shadow, it represents how his ties to GUN are slowly atrophying him.
It's a special case for Knuckles. The wasteland's existence is not horrific to him. He cannot read the warning signs bordering it, nor is he as knowledgeable as Shadow is, but therein lies his strength. It is his state of ignorance which empowers him to break through to Rouge and save her in her time of need, because the wasteland does not scare him. Knuckles sees things for what they are and finds solutions.
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The peach
White peach. The 'Saturn' peach. Practice peaches.
This fruit appears many times, having its first appearance in Adularescence. A symbol of Rouge's mixed breed (White 'fruit' bat and vampire bat) that she is wrapped in constant battle with. Her father's memory and her mother's comments to eat fruit intermix.
When the name of 'Saturn' peach is used, there's a double meaning. It refers to the peach variety and also the planet Saturn, which is the ruling planet of restriction and limitation... The planet itself has a ring around its waist.
To Knuckles, the peach represents his love for Rouge.
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Pluto
Pluto, the ruling planet of transformation and rebirth, influences more characters than just Amy in this story, but it is only Amy who can name this influence. As Tails points out in Ch. 18, Amy's strength comes from her ability to feel instead of thinking, but she is no stranger to resisting feelings which are screaming at her in the face.
I think we can all empathise with Amy. We've all been in a situation where we have been so intimately pressed under the weight of the truth, yet we resist. We look for other answers. But sooner or later, you have to answer to the weight of this planet. You have to accept the transformation you are divined to take.
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Sonic
Next to Rouge, Sonic's story in Metamorphosis is something that I connected with the more I wrote. I'd like to end by taking the time to talk a little more about his situation.
The theme of "transformation" informs the pathways of each character in Metamorphosis.
Rouge believes she'll never find her transformation.
Amy resists her predestined transformation.
Knuckles pursues and accepts the transformation of his relationship.
Shadow undergoes transformation that leads him away from GUN.
And so on.
For Sonic, he is late to his transformation. And he doesn't realise this until the final chapter.
But what does this mean?
As Amy reveals in Ch. 30, Sonic is perceptive when it comes to his external experience, but fails to recognise and understand his own feelings (his internal experience).
Because of this, he is then "late" to the emotional world of love; he's even beaten by single friends like Amy who have emotional insight to make up for it.
Therefore, Knuckles and Rouge's get-together ignites this sore spot in him, as he feels left behind, and we know Sonic hates feeling slow.
This delayed development is due to the hero role he has adopted, almost turning into a caricatured mascot; a ray of sunshine for the masses. He cannot stop to consider his inner world, lest he let others see the hero falter. It's not that he runs away from confusing emotions (though that too), he also buries them for the greater good. This leads him to be at odds with his external self and his internal self. He sacrificed his emotional development for his heroic lifestyle.
This is why he often forgets the expressions on his face in Metamorphosis, like when he is smiling; he's out of step with his internal experience, his external experience works quicker.
Without that emotional development, he can't recognise his feelings around Shadow as love.
Moving back up to surface level, Sonic does not want to entertain that Shadow could be anything other than a rival—and wishful thinking, anything more than a friend—for two main pressures.
Obviously, Shadow himself blurs the lines. Sonic does not interpret Shadow's behaviour as affection (which we can forgive as Shadow is notoriously opaque).
Sonic fears that a crush on Shadow would not align with his heroic image (external self).
Sonic is famous—all the girls want his attention and he is expected to play along with that. Sonic believes he is above worrying about what others think of him, but that's not true.
He cares about what others think of him. He knows his existence is a beacon of hope for people, and he has gotten used to fulfilling expectations. If Sonic was discovered to have a crush on a male rival, that wouldn't align. That's not what others expect of him (so he believes).
It's my take that the great hero Sonic the Hedgehog would be realistically subject to traditionally masculine expectations, like the canonical expectation that he should end up with Amy.
He's boyish, cocksure, and has likely been told time and time again that he could have any girl he wants. The only problem is he's never wanted any girl, and he's always tried to cope with this void by assuming that one day it'll kick in. It's why he tries with Amy. He doesn't want to disappoint her. He knows she's a sweet gal, he loves her friendship. There's nothing about her that turns him off outright. So he unwittingly strings her along, hoping one day, it'll kick in.
But that day never comes, and Amy realises this before he does.
How Sonic handles himself going forward, I'll let readers imagine it for now. It's why Amy allows him to keep his expression to himself.
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There's likely more but I'll stop here. If you made it to the end, thanks for reading my commentary. To know there are people out there who will spare the time to read my stories and interpretations, my appreciation knows no bounds. I am thankful for every word of support I receive and always hope to improve my writing.