And so it begins.
I'm working on my first of the 31_days pieces. I'm hoping to keep them all short, a page or two, so that they won't be all I'll write for the month. I think they'll be told in first-person POV, as though Snakes is telling it all to someone, maybe Chita herself. Maybe the last prompt will show that he's been writing a letter all this time, not with the intention to actually send it to her, but just so he can get the whole story written down as part of his own closure. We'll see.
I was thinking that another writing project I've often longed to do is an adaptation of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles combined games. I love them so much, and oddly enough, I think I've only ever read one adaptation of Sonic 3 by a fan. That took place in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog verse. It wasn't a bad read, but I'd like to put my own spin on it and have it take place more in the game verse. Problem is, for me a story like that relies heavily on the descriptions of the amazing surroundings and a fic could get pretty bogged down by excess descriptions. But it always bugged me that the Archie Comics never really took advantage of the awesome zones to write their game adaptations. They mainly just did silly stuff like Sonic sees this box and realizes it leads to several zones Eggman has set up for him to complete, so he goes through it and there's maybe one page of that before he comes out the other end. It's so lame. They ought to have whole chapters devoted to the amazing scenery and adventures in each zone! Plus, I never pictured the zones to be in a box. I figured they were actual areas of the part of the world Sonic happened to be in that Eggman had just booby-trapped during his takeover.
I don't know when I'd ever get around to writing something like that, though. I'm really bad at writing Sonic fics, as I have repeatedly discovered. I used to write lots of Fang/Nack ones, but they were mostly shameless hurt/comfort or occasionally, utter crack. Actually writing big long multi-chapters with plot and purpose keeps seriously failing. Maybe a Sonic 3 & Knuckles one would work better for me since it was during that era that I fell in love with the franchise. I should at least give it a try and see what would happen. The encounters with Knuckles would be the best parts to write, but he only pops up every now and then to play tricks on Sonic and Tails since he believes they're the ones trying to steal the Master Emerald and ruining the Floating Island. I don't want the rest of the fic to basically be, "Oh hey, look at this cool Loop-de-Loop." "Here's a platform with more rings!" "Here's ... yikes, a break-away platform! We're falling!" I guess that's probably why Archie decided not to really explore the zones, but I'm sure there's a way to do it without it looking seriously lame or like script directions.
It's always interesting to see how Knuckles is portrayed in different things. The first time I ever encountered him was in his first Archie Comics appearance and they basically gave him a tough New York accent. I always pictured him like that until probably when I saw the English dubbed version of that bizarre thing called Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. He doesn't seem to have any accent at all in that, but he also sounds rather bland. (I love his hat, though.) Then came Sonic X, and while I loved hearing Yami Yugi's voice coming out of Knuckles' mouth, that really did make him sound pretty old. Sonic Underground gave him a voice more fitting for his age, but he sounded a lot gentler than I really pictured him to act, at least at the beginning. (Of course, contrast that with his creepiest behavior ever, intending to feed intruders to his pet dinosaur. WTH.) I think I've heard some of his non-Sonic X-era video game voices too, and I've also heard Sonic X in Japanese, but offhand I don't recall what I think of those voices. And Sonic Boom ... no, I am not going to go there. It just trivializes everybody and makes Knuckles a brawny idiot with no brains. No thank you. Part of the appeal of the character is that he's a little guy but he's tough. And he does have intelligence, even if he is kind of naive sometimes. He's been alone most of his life, with no interactions with much of anyone. It would be strange if he could get along with people immediately after that.
(Sonic X and also the more recent games seem to have made him more gullible than he used to be, I think. Sonic Boom took it many notches beyond that. I remember in season 3 of Sonic X, when Cosmo encountered Knuckles believing one of Eggman's tales and everyone else is yawning like it's business as usual, Cosmo says that Knuckles likes to believe in the good of people. That sounds cute and all until you really stop to think about the context of the situation. Um.... So he likes to believe that Eggman has some good in him and isn't lying, but at the same time he hates Sonic so much that he jumps at the chance to believe something bad about him. Um yeah. Really logical deduction, Cosmo. And really cringe-worthy behavior, Knuckles. Sonic and Knuckles are rivals, sure, but I think in the earlier games and media Knuckles only believed Eggman twice: in the Sonic 3/Sonic and Knuckles saga (which is really one whole storyline and not two separate things) and Triple Trouble, which sometimes isn't even seen as part of the main storyline since it was for a portable system and not the Sega Genesis. I think when they argued at other times in the comics, it was because of their differing points-of-view and not because Knuckles kept believing Sonic was actually the bad guy. That's one thing the comics did right, if so; I have many grievances with them on other matters. Game-wise, I think maybe there were one or two later games where Knuckles thinks Sonic is a bad guy again, but that was probably more for the nostalgic factor of his first appearance and not meant to be taken that seriously. I don't think those games, the Sonic Advance ones, are considered part of the main timeline either.)
If I ever were to write my Sonic 3 & Knuckles fic, I think I might return to my roots by giving Knuckles a Brooklyn accent. I always insist on the games taking place on Earth anyway, instead of some other planet called Mobius or whatever. (And none of that comic nonsense about Mobius being a post-apocalyptic Earth millennia in the future. No thank you!) Later games do seem to make it clear that it's Earth anyway, especially Sonic Adventure 2.
I was thinking that another writing project I've often longed to do is an adaptation of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles combined games. I love them so much, and oddly enough, I think I've only ever read one adaptation of Sonic 3 by a fan. That took place in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog verse. It wasn't a bad read, but I'd like to put my own spin on it and have it take place more in the game verse. Problem is, for me a story like that relies heavily on the descriptions of the amazing surroundings and a fic could get pretty bogged down by excess descriptions. But it always bugged me that the Archie Comics never really took advantage of the awesome zones to write their game adaptations. They mainly just did silly stuff like Sonic sees this box and realizes it leads to several zones Eggman has set up for him to complete, so he goes through it and there's maybe one page of that before he comes out the other end. It's so lame. They ought to have whole chapters devoted to the amazing scenery and adventures in each zone! Plus, I never pictured the zones to be in a box. I figured they were actual areas of the part of the world Sonic happened to be in that Eggman had just booby-trapped during his takeover.
I don't know when I'd ever get around to writing something like that, though. I'm really bad at writing Sonic fics, as I have repeatedly discovered. I used to write lots of Fang/Nack ones, but they were mostly shameless hurt/comfort or occasionally, utter crack. Actually writing big long multi-chapters with plot and purpose keeps seriously failing. Maybe a Sonic 3 & Knuckles one would work better for me since it was during that era that I fell in love with the franchise. I should at least give it a try and see what would happen. The encounters with Knuckles would be the best parts to write, but he only pops up every now and then to play tricks on Sonic and Tails since he believes they're the ones trying to steal the Master Emerald and ruining the Floating Island. I don't want the rest of the fic to basically be, "Oh hey, look at this cool Loop-de-Loop." "Here's a platform with more rings!" "Here's ... yikes, a break-away platform! We're falling!" I guess that's probably why Archie decided not to really explore the zones, but I'm sure there's a way to do it without it looking seriously lame or like script directions.
It's always interesting to see how Knuckles is portrayed in different things. The first time I ever encountered him was in his first Archie Comics appearance and they basically gave him a tough New York accent. I always pictured him like that until probably when I saw the English dubbed version of that bizarre thing called Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. He doesn't seem to have any accent at all in that, but he also sounds rather bland. (I love his hat, though.) Then came Sonic X, and while I loved hearing Yami Yugi's voice coming out of Knuckles' mouth, that really did make him sound pretty old. Sonic Underground gave him a voice more fitting for his age, but he sounded a lot gentler than I really pictured him to act, at least at the beginning. (Of course, contrast that with his creepiest behavior ever, intending to feed intruders to his pet dinosaur. WTH.) I think I've heard some of his non-Sonic X-era video game voices too, and I've also heard Sonic X in Japanese, but offhand I don't recall what I think of those voices. And Sonic Boom ... no, I am not going to go there. It just trivializes everybody and makes Knuckles a brawny idiot with no brains. No thank you. Part of the appeal of the character is that he's a little guy but he's tough. And he does have intelligence, even if he is kind of naive sometimes. He's been alone most of his life, with no interactions with much of anyone. It would be strange if he could get along with people immediately after that.
(Sonic X and also the more recent games seem to have made him more gullible than he used to be, I think. Sonic Boom took it many notches beyond that. I remember in season 3 of Sonic X, when Cosmo encountered Knuckles believing one of Eggman's tales and everyone else is yawning like it's business as usual, Cosmo says that Knuckles likes to believe in the good of people. That sounds cute and all until you really stop to think about the context of the situation. Um.... So he likes to believe that Eggman has some good in him and isn't lying, but at the same time he hates Sonic so much that he jumps at the chance to believe something bad about him. Um yeah. Really logical deduction, Cosmo. And really cringe-worthy behavior, Knuckles. Sonic and Knuckles are rivals, sure, but I think in the earlier games and media Knuckles only believed Eggman twice: in the Sonic 3/Sonic and Knuckles saga (which is really one whole storyline and not two separate things) and Triple Trouble, which sometimes isn't even seen as part of the main storyline since it was for a portable system and not the Sega Genesis. I think when they argued at other times in the comics, it was because of their differing points-of-view and not because Knuckles kept believing Sonic was actually the bad guy. That's one thing the comics did right, if so; I have many grievances with them on other matters. Game-wise, I think maybe there were one or two later games where Knuckles thinks Sonic is a bad guy again, but that was probably more for the nostalgic factor of his first appearance and not meant to be taken that seriously. I don't think those games, the Sonic Advance ones, are considered part of the main timeline either.)
If I ever were to write my Sonic 3 & Knuckles fic, I think I might return to my roots by giving Knuckles a Brooklyn accent. I always insist on the games taking place on Earth anyway, instead of some other planet called Mobius or whatever. (And none of that comic nonsense about Mobius being a post-apocalyptic Earth millennia in the future. No thank you!) Later games do seem to make it clear that it's Earth anyway, especially Sonic Adventure 2.