What can you tell me about dark gaia? /genq
insane cackling THOU WISHES TO HEARESTH BOUTH OUR KING OF NIGHTMARES NOW, DO WE??
that was shit holy shit i've never written such a sentence in such english. ahem.
so uhm, i like Dark Gaia :3
(quick note before the rambles begin but half of this bullshit is going to be headcanons and things I made up so prepare thyself. also I use they/it/she pronouns for dark gaia so i'll be referring to them with either of those sets).
According to the Sonic wiki "Dark Gaia (ダークガイア Dāku Gaia?), also known as simply Gaia, is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. [They are] a primordial hyper energy organism that has existed since the dawn of time and the incarnation of darkness, night and destruction. Since [their] birth, Dark Gaia has been in an eternal conflict with Light Gaia over Earth, where they maintain a cycle of destruction and rebirth of the planet."
In Sonic Unleashed, Dark Gaia serves as the overarching antagonist next to Eggman. In the story of Unleashed, Eggman aims to wake up Dark Gaia, harness their power, and build Eggmanland, which he does succeed in doing after a bit of set-backs (probably because opening up the planet to wake up Dark Gaia caused them to get split into millions of pieces and for their twin, Light Gaia, to get brain damage. and Eggman blames it on weight issues. No shit he literally says "well I don't want to hear about its weight issues!" while he hears about the delays). However, when Dark Gaia does appear, immediately they kick Eggman out and go after Sonic and Chip, kicking off the final boss fight where Chip as the Gaia Colossus and Sonic fight Dark Gaia.
i dont know who made this image but i think it kind of encapsulates the fight between dark gaia and sonic and gaia colossus.
oh yeah also dark gaia is kind of fucked up because girl what the fuck is this thing (perfect dark gaia)
According to the Sonic wiki, Dark Gaia is "a primordial abomination born from darkness; Dark Gaia is a purely malevolent force of nature. Seemingly lacking any form of consciousness or wisdom, [they] usually operates on little more than the mindset of a hostile, territorial and mindless beast and will attack anyone or anything [they] finds. Existing for the sole purpose of destroying the world, Dark Gaia is driven only by [their] singular instinct to bring the end of the world, not showing any reasons, regrets, enjoyment or thoughts about his actions."
I don't like this but that's what the Sonic wiki, and that brings me into my interpretation of this particular character which is also why I love them so much. There is a version of them that lives in my head that is very much not what the Sonic wiki says.
Dark Gaia is the manifestation of the night, darkness, and death. In Sonic's world, Dark Gaia is often associated with death, some version of the Grim Reaper in some way. They are the complete opposite of Light Gaia, who is the manifestation of the day, light, and life. Since the birth of the twins, they've been locked in eternal conflict. They never see eye to eye.
Perhaps it's instinct that they want to kill the other. Perhaps it's fear, perhaps it's the thrill of the chase. Fear can make people do the worst of things, and so can excitement. Both can make people do incredibly stupid things.
I don't like how the balance of the Earth is portrayed directly in Sonic Unleashed. "The darkness is always put to slumber by the light" my ass. "We all need to sleep, we all need to rest" is that it? It isn't balanced in my opinion. The darkness and shadows sound like a necessary evil, when in my opinion, it isn't. Dark Gaia represents a cloudy and overcast day, a blanket to protect from the heat. Dark Gaia represents the soft breeze that flies in from the ocean as the sun sets. Dark Gaia represents the chill of a fresh winter morning. Dark Gaia represents the life saving shade on a hot summer day (as described by 'The Heart of a Monster' fancomic, WHICH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY READ!! It has such a good depiction of Dark Gaia in my opinion).
The light isn't always good. Light Gaia represents the blazing summer days without the movement of air, suffocating with heat. Light Gaia represents the arid seasons where wildfires start. Light Gaia represents the hallucinations made from sweat and heat stroke.
This is the little fucker I'm talking about by the way. Chip I love you but you're kind of an asshole (of course, i'm biased because my bit this Band Camp was that I'm going to fight the sun. I have it printed on the sleeve of my section hoodie.)
The true balance is admitting that night and day both have pros and cons. We live with both positive and negative moments in our life. If we felt nothing but joy, if we felt nothing but sadness, would we ever feel human? The true balance is that grey area. The grey area where both night and day, joy and sadness, co-exist as the planet spins.
What actually I think radicalized me (which wasn't Sonic Leashed by AnImaginaryColor on ao3. It's a swap au of sonic unleashed that basically swaps the roles of Dark and Light Gaia. Go read it pleaseee) was my own writing of Dark Gaia in my Sonic Gijinka AU. That's right baby we're talking about it now.
Dark Gaia officially looks somewhat like this, a simple change in model on my end to fit the lore i've written, but I also gave them an actual gijinka to match Light Gaia.
Specifically I gave the twins relatively the same forms, one being a compact and tiny form, the other being a more godly and less tiny form. I also made sure I gave Light Gaia a fucked up monstrous form just to match his sibling.
I'm really proud of fucked up Chip.
According to my lore in this AU, Light and Dark Gaia started as the first split of the microscopic specks of life at the bottom of the ocean. After more of these specks were produced, the two originals ended up falling into the cracks in the bottom of the ocean floor, being absorbed into the Earth. These two lifeforms fused with the chaos energy of the planet, basically causing them to become gods. They are eternally evolving life forms of positive and negative chaos energy respectively, evolving with the life that they pave way to and basically being invisible guides. However, due to their nature as polar opposites, they grew to become rivals, and for around 3.8 billion years, they've been splitting the planet apart and fixing it in a dance for control. If we divide 3.8 billion with 10,000 (the number of years between each fight), we can conclude that the twins have had fights on some scale at least 380,000 times.
Listen if you have been stuck with your sibling who looks like THAT (check perfect light gaia and dark gaia) for 3.8 billion years, you're going to want to kill them (this information is actually incorrect because as these two are eternally evolving, they look different pretty much every time they fight. The forms I've presented for this AU are the most recent in modern times when Eggman pissed on the fucking Earth finally).
Okay that's enough rambling about biology. It's the dynamic i've written between the twins is what makes Dark Gaia my favorite character because of how fun they are to dissect as a character. They are a creature of few words, usually known as a 'malevolent deity who wants nothing but destruction and death'. This is incorrect. Dark Gaia is not inherently malicious, only doing what they do because it's their purpose. They are pushed to the side, killed over and over again, for what?
Light Gaia barely sees them as a person.
“The world cannot live without darkness. That is the inherent nature of a light source and its shadow. It’s a necessary evil according to nature. But I am nature. I can control where the light goes.”
“You're a selfish creature.”
“I’m not selfish. I’m the most selfless creature among the kingdom. The only selfish one here is you.”
“It’s the monsters like you that come from the darkness of the night. The night is nothing but darkness, destruction, death. All this pain and hate plagues existence like the sickness of disease, another concept of yours. I’m giving you the relief of my light.”
“The only mad ones are those who revel in pain and fear. You dance with the hatred and malice of the night, spreading fear among the creatures of the day. You’re sick in the head for that. I will not rest until every piece of this darkness is vanquished. Only then will the world live in peace, eternally joyous and prosperous.”
“How do you think I feel about that? You don’t care, you never did.”
“Dark Gaia, your the endless night. Your death. You don’t feel anything.”
^^ i wrote this a week or so ago when i was thinking too much about these morons. of course, this doesn't accurately paint who Light Gaia is, because he really is a good person who wants nothing more than peace and joy. This is very much written with Dark Gaia's perspective in mind, because they can't stand Light Gaia's beliefs. If either of the twins can understand the grey area of their balance, it would be Dark Gaia, who understands that too much of one side is not good.
Probably because Dark Gaia spends more time listening instead of yapping. I think they think a lot while they slumber, thinking a little too much about how things are and making themselves upset (totally not projecting onto the evil earth god uhhhh). But I think about them a lot. In this AU, I treat them like the disappointment older sibling (they and their brother are the same age, but personality wise Dark Gaia just kind of feels older. and i'm not getting into the dark ages something something big bang. sorry this AU is sci-fantasy and i love incorporating science and shit into my writing.) as their brother gets all the attention and love. He's the hero.
They'll always be the villain.
And it isn't even their fault.
AND THAT'S WHY DARK GAIA DID NOTHING WRONG-
SHE SAID IT. SHE SAID THE THING-
but anyways i love dark gaia very much and i love how i write them in my AU so here are some random things i stole from the last month or so in my au rambling spot tucked away in discord.
alright that's enough i think
i don't actually know why i like dark gaia that much i just think they're neat
alright that's all the rambles i can come up with now i just spent like the majority of my morning writing this i'm screaming crying throwing up oh my god