Sonic's Good Again: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of My Relationship With the Sonic the Hedgehog Series

-The Beginning-

You know this story. I've told it before. But here it is, one more time, to set the scene.

It was 1993, and little three-year-old Goops was beginning to form an attachment to video games. I played my mom's Atari 2600 as often as possible, usually playing Space Invaders. One day, the system went dead and refused to turn on again. I was beside myself with grief, and my mom knew what she had to do: get another video game console. She understood the Atari 2600 was old news by the 90s, but since she hadn't kept up with gaming since getting it, she wasn't sure what would be a good system to buy. Originally she considered an NES, but when she asked my older cousin for advice, he directed her away - the NES was old hat, too. The SNES, then? Nah. There was something much cooler on the market. If she wanted the most awesome video game system 1993 had to offer, she needed a Sega Genesis. And so, one morning I woke up to the sight of a new-in-box Model 2 Genesis in the living room and I was enraptured. Later that morning, the system was hooked up and I turned it on for the first time...

My mom has since added some additional information and a correction to this classic tale of how I first got into video games. Firstly, it wasn't a birthday gift like I had misremembered - the Atari did not happen to break down around then, she just wanted to cheer me up with a modern video game console after seeing how upset I was that the Atari had bitten the dust. Hilariously, she also added that when she became a mother, she had actually planned to raise a child without video games, which were at the height of their stereotypical "bad influence/brainrot" stereotyping in the early 90s, and she had bought into that mindset. When I'd found the Atari hanging around the house, though, she'd been willing to let me try it, and when she saw how despondent I was upon its' death, she already knew it was too late and couldn't bear seeing me so sad. Since then, my younger brother and even Mom herself have grown into avid gamers, and we've held the medium in high regard in this household ever since.

But it all comes back to that Genesis, and the pack-in game. Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Chatzy Madness Volume 423: I Have To Turn Gabriella Into A Solifugid

Gooper Blooper: link
Gooper Blooper: evening
RubyChao: "Hotel Mario is a 1994 puzzle video game"
RubyChao: There is a non-zero chance Hotel Mario contains unforgivable sin.
Gooper Blooper: HEY YOU, GET OFFA MY CLOUD
Gooper Blooper: wait a second
Gooper Blooper: could THIS be the unforgivable sin:
Harpydia: yeah that's assault, bro
RubyChao: oh my god
RubyChao: assault and battery
RubyChao: theft
RubyChao: this is the moment where mario becomes destined for hell
Harpydia: truly a sadge moment
Gooper Blooper: he coulda spawned in the OverThere if not for this
Gooper Blooper: damnation it is

--- 

Gooper Blooper: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/6895769
Jumpropeman: egg!
Gooper Blooper: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5209852
Jumpropeman: more egg!
Jumpropeman: when's her older sister join her in rp
Gooper Blooper: I unironically very briefly considered using Eggmaam as an antagonist for a Sonic-themed plot before realizing "no, this is just Eggette again" and scrapping it :V
Jumpropeman: why whats the problem with TWO eggettes-
Draco: Sage says they're copycat posers.
Gooper Blooper: I still find it suspicious that Sage popped up a few years after Eggette
Gooper Blooper: Sega had to have known about her...
Draco: Funny how Eggette hasn't been seen since... BI
Gooper Blooper: she was spotted this past May as a commentator for some big dumb robot fight where she revealed herself to be a stan for Chinkilla
Draco: ...hasn't been seen since...
Draco evacuates.

---

Draco: Two Dracgirls.
Gooper Blooper: I don't recall seeing the Archangel in RP, is this a reveal?
RubyChao: no, Draco used her as a faceclaim for the Mage General in agama
Draco: She had a minor role in Agama, faceclaim for Mage General Michaela Arcanjo. She's Silvania's step-daughter.
Gooper Blooper: Ah, yeah, we didn't see much of her
Gooper Blooper: totally forgot that character even existed
Draco: Yeah, she didn't do much.
Draco: She was a tertiary dueteragonist or something.
Jumpropeman: can you describe her with at least 30 adjectives?
Draco: Mean, rude, bullying, angry, bitter, sour, unhappy, commanding, domineering, dominating, magical, serious, busy, powerful, unimpressed, annoyed, steely, hardened, unforgiving, suspicious, untrusting, intelligent, clever, strategic, militaristic, hawkish, aggressive, brave, courageous, beautiful.
Jumpropeman: excellent, the first and most important zoofights rp wiki page can now be made
Jumpropeman: is she as beautiful as Ms. Fieldmouse though
Gooper Blooper: Ms. Fieldmouse's page got reworked at some point since JRM first found it and is a lot less unhinged in its' simping of her now
RubyChao: How dare.
Gooper Blooper: there's still this:
"Personality
Kind, caring, greedy, beautiful, attractive"
-but it doesn't call her "insanely sexy" any more
Draco: Nobody is THAT beautiful, JRM.
Jumpropeman: finally, modern hip Ms. Fieldmouse
Gooper Blooper: thanks, AI
RubyChao: Both Ms. Fieldmouse and Jacquimo the Swallow mention Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Jacquimo calls attention to the eponymous characters' impossible love, finding it romantic, while Ms. Fieldmouse comments in her song that their love was meaningless because it got them both killed.
However, Ms. Fieldmouse's allusion to Romeo and Juliet is actually incorrect, perhaps implying that she did not actually read the play: she says that they were "very much in love when they were wed" when actually the two lovers died before having the chance to get married (CORRECTION: Romeo and Juliet get married in Act 2, Scene 5 by Friar Laurence).
RubyChao: i like how they didn't bother to remove the incorrect one
RubyChao: but just add a correction
Jumpropeman: they didn't have any whiteout
Draco: The idea that Mrs. Fieldmouse might have not read Romeo and Juliet is very important to understanding her character.

Chatzy Madness Volume 422: Devote The Rest Of My Life To Mario

Gooper Blooper: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/8165246
Jumpropeman: only 76 images?!
Jumpropeman: *sharon bankrupts herself getting ravio commissions*
Draco: Dang. I can't believe she bought two Ravio commissions.
Hooded Pitohui: link
Hooded Pitohui: I saw a big poster with Ravio on it while browsing Etsy the other day and I was so tempted to buy it
Jumpropeman: oh man, that is cool
Jumpropeman: look at Sheerow! <3
Gooper Blooper: where's sharon tho
Jumpropeman: bringing out tables so it doesn't have to be on the grass
Jumpropeman: link
Gooper Blooper: link link
Jumpropeman: nep sometimes shows up at the rental shop just to make sure sharon's not sacrificing babies or whatever
Draco: "Tapestry" is being generous.
Jumpropeman: redbubble's so called tapestries are a gold mine
Draco: Once in a while, Nep's sister shows up to try to get Gale to do something.
Gooper Blooper: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ickg9LkvgaU/hqdefault.jpg
Jumpropeman: even thinking burns calories you know
Gooper Blooper: "Game Gear never attended SeHaGaHa High, preferring to stay home watching TV all day."
Jumpropeman: she learned enough from tv
Jumpropeman: like all the best soda brands
Draco: I mean, Gale got the best girlfriend that way, so...
Hooded Pitohui: Almost forgot to actually schedule the epilogue because I got to thinking about Sharon
Jumpropeman: understandable pitohui
Gooper Blooper: kek

--- 

Gooper Blooper: small post, I'm wiped out
Draco: *gets the push broom ready*
Hooded Pitohui: I feel ya. It's late.
Draco: It's only 9:30. Y'all are wimps.
Draco: jk
Gooper Blooper: it's 1:30 PM in Japan
Gooper Blooper: got the whole afternoon ahead of us
Gooper Blooper: I'm gonna go take a Tokyo afternoon nap
Gooper Blooper: nite

---

Gooper Blooper: So here's something Chao might enjoy
Gooper Blooper: Lately I've been playing a Rampage-style game on Switch called "Terror Of Hemasaurus" where you attack cities while playing as a Godzilla knockoff, and early on your kaiju attacks start pretty close to NYC
Gooper Blooper: However, when you get to NYC, you only visit it briefly for a short level in which you target one specific building in Manhattan
Gooper Blooper: The next level has you abruptly change course to go to New Jersey and the tutorial/mission explanation guy says "you can go ahead and wipe this whole place out, no one will miss it"
RubyChao: PFFFFFFFT
RubyChao: ahahahahahaa, i love it
Harpydia: jersey devil cries
Gooper Blooper: Oddly enough despite the Switch having approximately five hundred million games on it, none of them are Rampage, not even the original via that massive "Arcade Archives" port series, so I'm glad this was here to fill the gap
Draco: Brutal.
RubyChao: well harpy
RubyChao: robot hell didn't HAVE to be in new jersey, yet it is
RubyChao: checkmate
Harpydia: jersey devil now promoted to new york devil
Draco: Trapped forever here in robot hell.

GB RP 2024 Character Breakdown

Doing something a little different this year for my post-RP blog - I'm going to go through the enormous cast of characters I brought to the table this year and give my thoughts on their performance this year. Including the plot characters and villains means my events will get discussed along the way, too.

While working on this list, I certainly noticed how many times a character either didn't get used much or only got one or maybe two plots added to their resume. This is what comes of having a cast that's too dang large, and it's increased my resolve to heavily trim down the Ensemble for Season 15 as I try to do more with less instead of dumping every cute girl I see into RP. From the hospital crew to the witches to the solos and duos to the characters that joined up with DALI, it seemed like everyone was fighting for scraps of airtime...

Stella
And then there was Hoshii freakin' Holdings, which is somehow stronger than ever. So strong that Stella gets to be above the jump break. Stella has gone from secondary character, to main character, to the point where she's outright my current flagship, the star of GB RP and probably one of the first characters you think of when you think of my writing. This isn't all just Stella herself, either, but the people who work under her, considering the company features multiple breakout characters who did more than expected this season. Stella herself is certainly a powerhouse at this point, though. More than just someone who attends a bunch of events, she's in the tier of someone like Dia or Dawn in that she actively organizes Kobber forces to align against problems. Also, due to the circumstances of Del's cancelled Tau plot and the point it reached before being cut short, she might have prevented a planetwide assimilation attempt with nothing but a sternly-worded warning, which is a completely insane trophy for her already-stuffed trophy cabinet. We are very lucky the cat boomer is a benevolent soul.

To the surprise of no one, Stella is coming to Argo, and a number of the ideas floating around in my head for some kind of plot or conflict in the next season directly relate to her, mostly in the form of some potential new competition.

Chatzy Madness Volume 421: Totally Zarjaz

Jumpropeman: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2251717
RubyChao: congrats on the girl, ginny
Mobile Draco: Cute :3
Gooper Blooper: Tiny Thief Is Obsessed With Giant Landfill That's Four Times Her Size
Jumpropeman: wish there were more pictures of zadanost
Gooper Blooper: gorgeous
Jumpropeman: time to get jisatsu on the horn
Jumpropeman: im so proud of the little thief that could, brine pushed her to the stars and she just kept trucking to a possible happy life because of it
Gooper Blooper: sometimes RP is just about making a cute girl happy
RubyChao: time for brine to do it AGAIN
Jumpropeman: i was particularly happy that ginny and zada connected on feeling like they were good as they are. I wonder if Zadanost would still be as she is if Ginny didn't tell her it's alright to be a trash heap and in fact, it's amazing
Jumpropeman has a lot of pent up happiness after last night's scene!
Gooper Blooper: I'm reminded of how every so often I'll go back and reread big pairing confirmation moments of my own just to smile at them
Gooper Blooper: Meredith/Rachel is a favorite, big surprise
Jumpropeman: i went back and reread some palette/cube lately
Gooper Blooper: The Cuddle Cube~
RubyChao: i need to do a few more of those to reread, clearly
RubyChao: my most recent one was two years ago!
Jumpropeman: i mean, chao, if you need a lady, i've got hot singles in your area
Jumpropeman: let's see...
Claire: taken. Kogasa: in progress. GBC: taken. Cube: taken. Miyoi: available, but a rare treasure. Yuuma: available. Pete: if that's your thing. Sinful: ... Prosperity: available. Ginny: <3 Vita: in progress ;) PSP: available Fiona: in progress. DALI: all available, so grab Uysnskow QUICK
Fussy Little BunBun: What about Zed
Jumpropeman: nobody's gone for the big guy yet
Gooper Blooper: he'd fall under DALI
Fussy Little BunBun: What about Dr Crygor
Jumpropeman: Crygor x Lady Science is hard canon
Mobile Draco: Miyoi is a forbidden fruit, too sweet to actually possess...
Brine: Very happy with that scene as well. Definitely feels like a culmination of all their sort of stuff... Full stop, Zadanost wouldn't have embraced her full Trash Crystal Elementalness but for Ginny, likely would've gone in the other direction slowly but surely over time. Brine RP is just a drive to make ALL the cute girls happy.

 --- 

Jumpropeman: "The robot chef drained her sausage" right in front of everyone?!
Jumpropeman: (sorry)
Gooper Blooper: XD
RubyChao: jrm pls

---

The Folks On Death Helicopters: "Oh, this is nice. The bacon, especially." I read this as "The bitcoin."
Gooper Blooper: delicious kromer
RubyChao: ?

---

Draco: Dorothy can't wait to try Sue's cake. B)
Gooper Blooper: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Draco: (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

Chatzy Madness Volume 420: Star Wars Ain't Real

Diadem: don't worry we'll put benedictine cucumberpatch in her place too eventually
Diadem: but she's smart not to get kobberitised this early
Brine: She didn't want anything to do with the Kobbers, they just kept... showing up! Just, sighing and washing her hands of this whole thing. For now. We're gonna get her though!
Diadem: don't send operatives to where kobbers have been recently seen you silly cucumber
Brine: That darn Lee, crawling to safety with them. Absolutely gross. Sending less people to stay under the radar backfired, definitely :V Benedictine back at home like "Well... Fiddlesticks."
MobileCurryy: Damn she owns part of tennessee but can’t say fuck smdh
Brine: Too much class! It'll make it mean that much more when she drops one midKobbering.

--- 

Jumpropeman: in the same way Randy was likely hired when the ZFPD became more "official", Chiyari probably joined the hospital around the time they became an organization
Jumpropeman: she has a low social battery so even if a Kobber tried to get chummy with her before, she probably just did the bare minimum in the conversation
Jumpropeman: aren't you excited to meet her?!?!
Mobile Draco: Does she like potatoes?
Jumpropeman: i did consider having her have a snack for this scene. so I'll go with... yes

---

Mbwah Sheep joined the chat
Turalli Traveler tosses a net over Sheep
Turalli Traveler: Stay!
Mbwah Sheep releases his spores in self defense
Mbwah Sheep: Hello
Turalli Traveler: You know spores aren’t going to do much against a net
Mbwah Sheep chews on net
Turalli Traveler: Slightly more effective.
Jumpropeman: hi sheep
Mbwah Sheep: yo
Turalli Traveler: So how is brawl victory tasting
Mbwah Sheep: I'm coping :L
Jumpropeman: just think about how happy it made chao!
RubyChao: it's true
RubyChao: legit how goops felt when harpy finally won
Mbwah Sheep: :I
Mbwah Sheep: this is my smiling face...
Draco: Sheep is smiling? Nature is healing! ;o;
Turalli Traveler: I wanna try and win next year.
RubyChao: good luck!
Draco: I'll vote for you.
Draco: I'm not voting for Sheep anymore though. He's had too much excitement for one year.
Mbwah Sheep: It's true. We had to hire a guy to run on a little wheel where my heart used to be.
Jumpropeman: so that's where spat went
Mbwah Sheep: Listen, he's a busy guy
Turalli Traveler: Sorry CW.
Turalli Traveler: I am not holding back
Turalli Traveler: Next year I will bring in
Turalli Traveler: The cute girls
Draco: Oh no
Draco: Cornwind doesn't have many of those. D:
Jumpropeman: 😱
Jumpropeman: im gonna enter a cute goat, i heard those win
Jumpropeman: wait, I entered yuuma last year
Draco: Not cute enough, apparently.
Draco: Cornwind should enter the god-making villain so she can win and we can make "First time" jokes forever.
Turalli Traveler: He does!
Turalli Traveler: It’s just that his cute girls can and will break a person’s spine over their knee
RubyChao: in fairness, i think a lot of cute girls in rp can
Draco: Mine can't. All my cute girls skipped knee day.
Turalli Traveler: Well mine couldn’t with their knees specifically

---

Jumpropeman: considering JRM's amoral approach to brawl entry management, if Old Bun Eye had won the brawl, I guess he'd just kinda turn the monster loose afterwards :V Post-Brawl plot: stop the Tyranibble attack on Glasetera
RubyChao: spy did say that he would have cobbled together a plot for us
Draco: Old Bun Eye gets turned into a cute anime girl by Brine too.

---

Mbwah Sheep: Birds fly. Fish swim. And Playmate loses at cards.

Chatzy Madness Volume 419: Big Bar Brawl 14 Edition

Jocular ExplosionFromTheMouth: Sheep what have you done
Marked Sheep: Probably something unspeakable.

--- 

Mobile Draco: Calling, Sheep. Send help to the Spathi.
Marked Sheep shoots Spathi
Marked Sheep: Gomenasorry

---

Gooper Blooper: checked a Vermont news website today and got an article that began as follows
Gooper Blooper: "For most of the 30 years Jovana Guarino has lived in South Burlington, she has considered the city a peaceful and enjoyable place to live."
Gooper Blooper: "That is until pickleball arrived."
Diadem: king pickle rickle really fucking conquering vermont

---

Jumpropeman: I feel like I had something to say... *brain sparks*
Mobile Pitohui: I keep having that experience lately.
Mobile Pitohui: I blame the heat making for restless nights.
Jumpropeman mind is just a miasma of brawl spoilers
Gooper Blooper: On that note
Gooper Blooper: Bravo to JRM for never once accidentally letting slip any Brawl spoilers in regular conversation during the Brawl Cave period
Draco: It's why he usually avoids us: because he's so HYPE.
Jumpropeman: its one reason I don't like, share links of danbooru or much during brawl too, don't want you think I'm thinking about a character too much :V
Draco: Is that why you shared a hundred Sucy pictures? ;p
Gooper Blooper: JRM's Pinterest is currently filled with pictures of Pukey
Jumpropeman: link
Draco: AH HA! Lil Cirno's winning the Brawl this year! >:D
Jumpropeman: D: I thought I threw you off the scent...

---

Jumpropeman: Draco, DALI would support the robot rights thing in some capacity so you can say they're there somehow
Jumpropeman: I don't want you to feel obligated to have like, Zed or Ember who could be very strong, but you can have like, Jawbreaker and Phanty or something
Jumpropeman: Kogasa can be there and tell them they can't participate since their user isn't around
Gooper Blooper: I can see Kogasa attending and then eliminating herself from the fight that way
Gooper Blooper: "Oh, I should be in the Brawl Cave!"
Jumpropeman: pictured: kogasa exiting plot
Draco: Alright. I'll say Kogasa is there trying to become a robot. ;V

---

RubyChao: man i think the brawl wait really is where you feel how long two weeks is
Jumpropeman: what do you mean, two weeks feels so short to me-
Gooper Blooper: It's like waiting for Christmas
Gooper Blooper: You wait and wait and wait, and then IT'S HERE... and then it's gone and you gotta wait another year
Draco: I have a video game to keep me busy for two weeks. There's no plot on Saturday after all. ;p
Turalli Traveler: Well you also get the behind the fites
Turalli Traveler: I always like that
Gooper Blooper: That's always an enjoyable chaser, yes