Sonic Liberty: Author's Commentary

Sonic Liberty

Author's Commentary

SONIC: LIBERTY

AUTHOR’S COMMENTARY

Click the Emboldened Titles to jump/return to the corresponding pages

COVER

Another drawn cover, this time it’s another collage and it features all the main characters of the story in their Sonic Advance 3/Sonic Battle poses. I like Sonic and Eggman the most in this picture, the two Shadow’s could be better (especially the right-hand one), Chaos is pretty cramped and Emerl doesn’t look as good as Gemerl, but it’s good and effective nonetheless I think. Originally, this comic was called Sonic: Freedom and Sonic: The Last Stand, before I settled on simply Sonic: Liberty. In addition, concerning the web site, I like what I did with the Story So Far/Scenario option this time round, having it split up into little character Vs character sections to tell each little story separately and build up each character nicely, just thought it was a neat little thing.

As seen in Sonic Battle: Metal Ragnorak, we open with Eggman performing a log entry, as opposed to any sort of prologue this time around. This time, we see Eggman discovering Emerl encapsulated (as we saw in Tales Of Shadow 3) and there’s a bunch of cool little split-screens of Emerl learning the attacks and abilities of other characters as Eggman speaks, giving us the rundown on Emerl. Then, we see Eggman back in that control room with Gemerl (pronounced G-Mel, the Robot itself isn’t name din the Sonic Advance 3 booklet, I call it Gemerl, some people call it Gemel, this way I appease everyone) who we briefly saw at the end of Tales Of Shadow 3. Eggman explains that he copied Emerl, creating his own duplicate for a very specific purpose that remains unclear exactly but it’s basically because he wants to use Gemerl as a key, a conduit, to power his latest creation and, if Gemerl is destroyed or has to be permanently integrated into the systems of Eggman’s newest machine, then he can do so and still have the most powerful Robot, Emerl, as his general. Gemerl has all the capabilities of Emerl but is naturally weaker and unable to harness the full powers of the Chaos Emeralds. Anyway, enough of that for now, as we join Eggman in a brand new control room, taken from Knuckles’ Chaotix, where he is once again recruiting the services of Nack and, this time, Rouge who’ll clearly do anything for jewels. Eggman calls her on her untrustworthy nature, keeping in mind that she was pretty much against him in Sonic Heroes, but Rouge wants to fight Knuckles again and wants to get her hands on Eggman’s vast fortune, so she’s taming up with him this time, that freeloading, self-serving rogue lol.

Okay, plot time (well, some plot, the full extent isn’t revealed until later) as Eggman explains that he’s been reading Archie comics and decided to create a huge beam emitter that will convert natural life into Robotics using the same technology he employed in his Roboticisor Bombs way back in TCRS, he calls it the Final Egg Blaster (name taken from Sonic Battle) and he wants to use it instead of eradicating the land and having to rebuild upon it. However, to power toe Final Egg Blaster he requires a simple Shard from the Master Emerald. It is not necessary to have the whole Emerald, just one simple Shard (this makes everything that much easier for me lol). Using the Shard and Gemerl, the Final Egg Blaster will be powered up, ah so that’s what Gemerl is for. Basically, Gemerl was created to die and/or become this weapon of mass devastation, that’s cold, Ivo. Rouge wants to fight Knuckles and is excited about that prospect and, lookie here, Nack is speaking with an Australian accent! Yay, I love that, totally stole it from another comic, might’ve been the excellent Player Two comics, but it works so well with Nack that I had to have it, it instantly gives him more personality. Rouge makes an interesting call on Eggman here- if he has a huge army of Robots, why does he need them to get the Shard? Well, they’re the best at what they do and Eggman isn’t taking any chances this time. So, thus, the stage is set.

I love this! Tails is a mechanic lol, working on the Cyclone Walker. When I first drafted up my ideas for a Sonic comic series, Tails copied Eggman’s designs and built the Cyclone Walker and the two battled each other ala Sonic Adventure 2, but it never came to pass and, even though it’s cameoed here, the Cyclone Walker never sees any action because it’s too bulky and not flexible enough, but maybe one day. Tails is holding a little screwdriver in that second frame lol, it’s so cute, then he dusts his hands off thanks to me splicing this sprite with one of Sonic’s. Bless Amy, she wants to see Sonic. Sonic’s having a run though, getting some alone time, but look at this, Emerl teleports in using Shadow’s skills again.

Notice how none of the characters really question or care how or why Emerl has come back? They saw Knux smash his head off at the end of Sonic Battle: Metal Ragnorak, but not his self-reconstruction, they just brush it off and fight the bugger, I guess after encountering Metal Sonic so often they just got used to their enemies coming back again and again. I love those little difficult moments between Tails and Amy as she asks him about Sonic and he’s all uncomfortable, makes me laugh, Tails is still innocent and cute, however he also quickly takes charge and uses his skills and knowledge to fight off these incoming Gamma Robots too (seen a little later) which shows how he has grown and learned since the battle with the Metal. Yahoo, Marble Garden, at last, and look at this, Chaotix just lounging around lol, but Espio’s jumpy…

Probably because of these incoming Gamma Robots. Gotta say, after all this time, the almost cliché of Robots-distract-the-heroes-whilst-something-happens never seems to get old because it’s a tried and tested tactic of Eggman’s- strength in numbers, it works, so why not use it? Check out Knuckles, brooding again but blam lol, he’s blasted by cannons! It’s Rouge and Nack on his little floating craft-thing from Sonic: Triple Trouble. Notice how Nack doesn’t mind Rouge fighting Knuckles in a rematch? He’s a gentleman alright.

That prompts Knuckles and Rouge to flashback to Sonic Adventure 2 lol. Bless, Cream and Cheese are sitting by the pool again. You’d think I’dve made a different Flickie’s Island background by now lol. Guess whose coming to dinner, it’s Gemerl. Unlike Eggman’s other Robots, Gemerl seems very hesitant and slow, very conversational and reserved. Why? Well, think about Emerl, he was like that too, once you establish the Link with him he learns faster and becomes more intelligent. Gemerl is a duplicate, a flawed one but a duplicate nonetheless, and he is missing that Link capability, giving him instead the mindset of a child and a kind of innocence and wonder about the world. Cream decides to audition for a role in Sonic Adventure Mega DX lol as she channels the spirit of Amy to try to talk Gemerl around, Cheese even becomes the Birdy and Gemerl does a convincing E-102 Gamma lol, but it’s necessary to highlight Gemerl’s simple-minded nature and his innocence.

Screw talking, let’s fight! Sonic and Emerl butt heads, repelling each other, so Emerl uses another of Shadow’s attacks to try and blast Sonic, but he dodges it and does a little quickness with his flashy skills. Here it is (again with the explosions *rolleyes*), as Tails uses his head to realise that they’re not being invaded by the Gamma Robots.

Instead it’s a distraction, to keep them busy. Check out Tails’s skills here as he propels himself into the air and then blasts two Gamma Robots with a twin bolt, very flashy. See now, Amy is the naïve one, maybe a while back Tails would have considered those Robots a lot to deal with but not now and he knows that they have to find Sonic quickly because it means trouble is brewing somewhere. And that somewhere is, of course, Floating Island, as Knuckles and Rouge trade punches once more in a much cleaner fight then the one in TCRS.

I like these little split-screens here, against colourful backgrounds this time, that show the two trading shots, displaying their new attacks, as Nack sneaks past in the background lol. Nack I stuck in first, then I cropped the frame into those little boxes and stuck in Knux and Rouge, who are oblivious to Nack’s presence. Check out Rouge’s leg sweep, nice stuff, but Knuckles wins again with the flaming upper cut and the Sonic Heroes “Shaa!” lol, a winning combination. But wait, Nack is holding the Master Emerald hostage with his pistol! Wow, Cream’s really begging here. See. Obviously, she can’t understand why Gemerl should listen to a bad man like Eggman so she’s trying to convince Gemerl not to do what Eggman says and Gemerl’s slowly buying it, because Creams makes some good points. This comic is really where Cream plays a significant part, even though it is a bit sappy lol.

Stop the sappiness, it’s dramatic Gamma Robots to the rescue lol! Seriously, if you thought Ray was mullered in TTSS, then check out this! But Cream is fine, just hurt and check out Gemerl, he’s concerned for her safety. Gemerl’s power-up aura is a tint of green, as he draws his power from inherent Emerald powers passed over from Emerl. Gemerl’s body-cannon is quite impressive here I think, it shows he has a lot of potential power but is perhaps reluctant to use it or, more likely, unable to use it due to the fact that he isn’t as perfect as Emerl is. Poor Gemerl, he believes that he’ll be turned into a mindless weapon, which is true, and Cream has shown him that he doesn’t want that, he wants to live, he looks so sad there :(

Gemerl reveals a bit of a hint here, some more plot, so now we know the Final Egg Blaster is actually in space on a space station, interesting…Cream’s first thought is to get help and immediately thinks of Sonic and, like that, Gemerl becomes another machine who has broken free of Eggman’s control, guess you can’t just get the help these days eh, Doc? Then again, there’s still Emerl, whose doing a great job of keeping Sonic distracted, for Emerl knows all Sonic’s tricks as well as those of Shadow, Chaos, Knuckles and the Gamma Robots so it’s like fighting five opponents at once. Sonic makes a made dash of Emerl, but Emerl is charging something up, know what it is? He’s charging Chaos Spear!!

However, it’s Tails and Amy to the rescue as they clobber Emerl overhead and interrupt his attack and Sonic immediately gets them to stand back and desist so that Emerl doesn’t copy their skills and become even more dangerous. Remember Chaotix? Oh yeah, they won lol, there was supposed to be another shot of them fighting the Robots but I forgot it and missed it out, but it doesn’t really matter much I think. They suss out that it was a distraction so, again, they rush off to help Knuckles, just in case, I love these guys lol. Lol, “somehow I don’t seem to care” good stuff from Nack, who knows as well as Knuckles does that cracking the Master Emerald will release Chaos once again.

One shot later and a piece breaks off, right into Rouge’s hands (the Shard is a re-coloured sprite from Sonic Battle from Knuckles’s dig move) and, once again, a blast of blinding energy radiates out from the damaged Emerald, unleashing its captives. In Station Square, as Ali Fox from my Bonus Randomness comics runs off frame, the clone Shadow senses this and expresses his disbelief that someone has once again released Chaos and his “brother”. However, that has to wait, as Emerl prepares to rush all three of them using Shadow’s dashing skills no less, however Cream and Gemerl crash the party. Sonic prepares to destroy them both but Cream once again channels the spirit of Sonic Adventure and convinces Sonic that Gemerl is a friend (prompting Tails’s “G-Mel?” line, to let us know how Gemerl’s name sounds) and we’re ready for a showdown between Emerl and his brother, Gemerl.

Emerl wastes no time and beats the tar out of Gemerl, sending him crashing to the ground with pathetic ease. But, spurred on by Cream’s wail, Gemerl flips right back up and blasts Emerl and then prepares to follow through (more on Gemerl’s strengths/weaknesses in a bit). As usual, Chaotix arrive too late, to find Knuckles in a deeper brooding (notice the Master Emerald is sparkling? Little touch of mine to show its powers are out of flux with a Shard missing) when suddenly, Shadow teleports in in an overly dramatic fashion lol.

Shadow’s quick to the point and Espio recognises him as the “other” Shadow, the original and Chaos were released from the Master Emerald but have disappeared and Shadow cannot sense them. Oh, by the way, IT’S THE FREAKING DEATH EGG!!! Oh yes people, this time I’m invoking the spirit of George Lucas with the return of the Death Egg. Eggman’s really taking no chances now and has converted the death rays into the Final Egg Blaster Roboticisor Ray (see? It’s a little different lol) and this time the inside is that of Sonic 2 rather than Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Spectacular. I love that machine, which is the control panel for the Final Egg Blaster, took ages to splice all those different bits together and it works really well, which is more than I can say for most of my custom made machines/computers. In his elation at having the Shard and his plans all coming together, Eggman allows Nack and Rouge to leave and take automated ships back to the surface and claim their rewards, that’s right, Eggman actually did reward them. He is generous today. But, as he notes, what good will jewels or money do them when he rules the world?

We come back to see Gemerl down again and at Emerl’s mercy. Fact is that Gemerl is just nowhere near as strong as Emerl. He can take as much, maybe a little less, damage and recover almost as fast but Gemerl isn’t experienced enough for this fight and isn’t powerful enough to trade blows with Emerl.. Maybe he will be in time, but right now? No chance. Thus, Sonic jumps in and prepares to fight side by side with Gemerl, when Shadow, Knuckles and Chaotix break up the party, allowing Emerl to Shadow-dash behind Gemerl and teleport out! As Scorpion said in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation: “Suckers!!” Bless, Cream goes all upset and starts crying ‘cuz Gemerl’s gone. Sonic, of course, blame it on Knuckles.

However, Knuckles and Shadow are all business (notice that Amy walked across the frame to comfort Cream? Touching) and Tails gives some props to the Shard, allowing us to again see that one Shard is immensely powerful. Just as Knuckles says they have no idea where the original Shadow and Chaos are, he and Shadow sense the presence of the Shard coming from space (Eggman must have awakened the Shard’s power and prepared to integrate it and Gemerl into his weapon), which draws a response from Cream. Remember, because Gemerl told her that there was a space station, so thus they learn where Eggman is, all thanks to Cream! Yay lol! Sonic realises that Eggman must have rebuilt the Death Egg somehow (conceivable, given the amount of time Eggman was dormant between TCRS and Sonic Heroes and the amount of time that’s passed) and Tails and Knuckles prepare to head up there and deactivate/destroy it, handily Shadow offers to give them a ride using Chaos Control and, thus, they prepare to leave.

Remember that, Sonic promises to save Gemerl and we get the usual good luck’s as the teleport out in a flash of light. Tense. Oh okay, I was wrong, Eggman hasn’t put the Shard in the machine yet, whatever, they sensed it ‘cuz they’re strong, okay? Anyway, Gemerl is in the machine and the four heroes go all gung-ho, only to be stopped by Emerl’s powerful aura, another seismic shock of sorts. Simple and effective that.

And that’s it, that one second was enough time for Eggman to put the Shard into the machine and power it up, the machine is complete and, now Gemerl is part of the machine. That outside shot is great, I ripped it myself (a while later someone else did and it was without the Sky Sanctuary bits overlapping the Death Egg, whereas on mine I covered them up with those metal platforms) and the Final Egg Blaster is, of course, Eggman’s final mech as seen in Sonic Advance 3, all works pretty well though. Hey, check out those two little balls of light, how odd. Eggman’s won, but the fight’s not over and..Oh, here comes some more party crashers…

Hey, it’s the original Shadow and Chaos, side by side!? Before any questions can be asked, they perform Time Stop and freeze time, allowing them to talk to the others without fear of anything bad happening (in the original script, Time Stop didn’t occur until later but the Eggman dialogue through Shadow’s speech started to piss me off so I decided that Shadow and Chaos would just get straight to business). Okay, so everything’s frozen but the heroes and Chaos, but what’s happening? Naturally everyone is agitated by Chaos’s presence, why would they trust him, he’s a rampaging beast. But Shadow explains it. Together, they’ve been trapped inside the Master Emerald and Shadow’s positive energies kept a natural balance to Chaos’s negative energies, in fact they started to influence the beast and subdue it, turning it into a creature of complacency. This is true Chaos Control, for now Chaos is a good guy, Shadow’s faithful buddy, and is required for one last act, for when they were released from the Master Emerald this time they started to become less corporal and unable to maintain their physical forms, as now there’s no imbalance between the two and their magical presence must fade from reality.

Tails realises what Shadow’s saying- that he and Chaos are, basically, going to die, but it’s not a bad thing, Shadow says, for they will cleanse the evil from Mobius with the remainder of their great powers. Why are they to die now? Well, maybe it’s time, everything ends sometime, and now they aren’t really needed, for there is balance within the Emeralds powers and new champions to use those powers for good. Sonic jumps in, realising that Shadow’s plan will mean the death of Eggman and Gemerl (loosely tying up how Eggman survived the end of TCRS) and asks for them to be spared, Shadow grants his request as Sonic is being noble, and, with a click of his fingers, Shadow sends Eggman and Emerl back to Egg Island and unfreezes time so that they can begin. This is where we discover exactly what the point of all this is, as Shadow identifies them all as each being the six representations of the Chaos Emeralds- there’s Shadow, the physical manifestation of good, Chaos, the subdued manifestation of evil…

Sonic, who has been chosen to harness the positive energies of the Chaos Emeralds (in effect, the mortal/biological reincarnation of Shadow), Knuckles, who, like his kind, guarded and protected the Emeralds and inherited powers from them, the clone Shadow, who has Emerald powers despite not being bestowed them by conventional means, and Tails, who carries the powers of the Chaos Ring, the only element that can match the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. Six beings, working together with the Emeralds and the Master Emerald, can work miracles, and each of them represents a Chaos Emerald, as we see when they power up (Chaos gets a red tint as opposed to transforming into Perfect Chaos as Perfect Chaos is a transformation of his physical self to reflect the powers of the Emeralds, not his ascended form). They power up and destroy the Death Egg and their powers radiate a great light down upon Mobius that waits to be utilised. Gemerl and the Shard have been safely recovered and we get a much more visually impressive Death Egg explosion, I think.

Again, Eggman sees this and is in insane denial. That does it for Shadow and Chaos, they must forever fade, but Shadow does something else before he goes, he combines his powers and a part of himself with his “brother”, in effect allowing the clone to take Shadow’s place as a living being with a soul, so he’s not just some lab creation anymore and he has all his memories and experiences so he knows who and what he is, finally. Now, the last task must be performed by he and Sonic, who share the same powers and potential, so he sends Tails and Knuckles away to use the great power they have stored up following their unification.

Everyone is full of questions but Tails and Knuckles simply turn their eyes skyward, knowing what’s to occur and prepare to wait for the great miracle. In space, Shadow teaches Sonic how to perform Chaos Control and, together, they become two burning stars in the sky and channel their powers and the residual energy left by the six of them and the powers of all the Emeralds t cleanse the evil out of Mobius by initiating Chaos Control, which envelops the entire globe in a blinding flash of pure energy.

The light covers everything, beaming down upon the Robots and the pollution that covers Egg Island and crawling over it like liquid until it encompasses the entire Island, undoing the damage of yesteryear.

Eggman seethes with anger, he knows what’s happening and, as always and no matter what, swears blind revenge, so his threat remains in spirit. Then, just as suddenly, it is over and Crystal Island is back. On the Island, in a lovely background from Knuckles’s Chaotix, Super Sonic and Super Shadow float above the denizens of the Island, their work completed. Using Chaos Control, they stripped all of Eggman’s evil influence from the Planet and restored all the lives lost and/or enslaved by Eggman’s machines, effectively undoing everything that Eggman had built since BFTCE and ending the conflict. It’s peace, freedom and liberty for Mobius. Epilogue follows, of course, as Shadow parts ways with Sonic and Knuckles, preparing to find a place in this new world with his life now his at last.

With that, they say farewell. As for Knuckles (and presumably Chaotix) he must continue to guard his sacred Island and the Emeralds and they part ways on a mutual handshake of friendship and respect, just as they did at the end of BFTCE (when I finished Sonic Liberty, I hadn’t done the Remastered Edition of BFTCE so this frame was important to me to finally get that handshake right and now it all fits perfectly). Flickie’s Island Epilogue is basically the end scenes from Sonic Advance 3, showing Tails getting Gemerl back into action and him living with Cream and Vanilla, ready to start his life. This bit I like the most, it’s Sonic back in limbo talking to Shadow and Chaos, as he and Knuckles did at the end of Perfect Chaos. This suggests, perhaps rightly so I haven’t decided yet, that Sonic can converse with Shadow whenever he wants due to their shared link through the Emeralds powers. Through this discourse, Shadow says that when Sonic passes on, the two of them will race together until the end of time but until then he should enjoy the peace he’s earned, but Sonic laughs it off, ready and hungry for more adventures.

With that, limbo fades to Emerald Hill where Amy finally gets her man, waking Sonic from his dream state by hugging him (though it looks a bit like she’s grabbing his balls lol). Sonic’s brief hesitation there (“…Yeah! Things…”) is to indicate that he wasn’t exactly unaffected by Amy’s affections and is a small hint that he may act on his feelings for her someday, like the end of Sonic X when Sonic returns to Mobius and chats to Amy. However, the very next instant, he races off, followed by Tails and, of course, Amy, ready to face whatever lies ahead.

In an unnamed area of Crystal Island, actually another lovely background from Knuckles’ Chaotix, Eggman walks with Emerl and, as always, in a small homage to the end of SatAM Sonic and in the spirit of Eggman’s unquenchable desire for power and glory, Eggman swears that it’ll never, ever be over and that somehow he will rise again, somehow. And with that, and a neat little collage, we have the final end.

OVERALL

Sonic Liberty is where everything comes full circle, it’s the seventh feature comic in my series of comics and, to all intents and purposes, the final story, and what better way to end things than to recreate the themes and situations of all my comics so far. The return of the Death Egg (from BFTCE), the banding together of the heroes (as in TTSS), the madness of Eggman (seen in Perfect Chaos), his desire to Robotize the land in one fell swoop (as in TCRS), a Robot on a mission (Emerl very much like Metal in Sonic Heroes), and the complete finality of it all (Sonic destroying Metal in Sonic Battle: Metal Ragnorak). It’s all been leading towards this, though I never planned it to all act out in this way, it just all happened to fall together as I wrote the script for this comic. Six characters, all with powers granted by legendary gems, working in conjunction with the seventh to free the Planet from evil. Coincidence? In truth, yes, it was, but not anymore, not according to this final comic, which says that everything that has happened so far has been preordained destiny- fate, working towards that one inevitable conclusion and the balance of good and evil finally being fixed so that peace can reign. It doesn’t get more final than this comic, while a lot of it is a little rehashed, it’s all necessary to tie it all up neatly and easily and cap the series off just as it began. This comic allowed me also to bring in Gemerl and, through him, create a more true-to-the-game version of Emerl, because my Emerl is evil and quite different from his game counterpart, and also to add another valuable asset to the Freedom Fighters. Who knows where Gemerl’s story goes after this, or any of the other characters for that matter? Will Eggman return in force again? Will Emerl and Gemerl fight again? Will Sonic and Amy get together? Will Tails become a great leader/hero and grow into a responsible young adult? What of Knuckles and Chaotix and Shadow? Time will tell, in due course.

Thanks again, it’s been a great ride.

- Stuart/SkSpAwN