xX-_KiNNiK_-Xx
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Shirtless Shapeshifter
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- Posted: Sun, 28 Oct 2012 12:53:54 +0000
Ok so ive been obsessing over Sonic Adventure 2 lately and have discovered hidden messages that the creator Ohtami Tomoya placed in the game, The true story of Sonic the Hedgehog is not about Sonic at all, Its actually of a man torn to pieces by the realization that his entire life is a self-fabricated monstrosity. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog is actually an illusion, formed under the aide of hallucinogens, that Knuckles has created to shelter himself from the harsh realities of the real world. It's basically story of utter defeat by one’s own self and a glorious revelation and rebirth of Knuckles mind. The classic tale of a man becoming more than himself only when he is at his lowest. It's quite a remarkable story, and one made all the more so by the medium through which it is told. Behind the upbeat songs of Sonic games lies a much darker subtext, A subtext I first noticed while playing the *Wild Canyon* level on SA2, In this level you play as Knuckles and a song called *KICK THE ROCK* plays. It's a very light-hearted, very fun song. It is meant as a reintroduction to the world of Sonic the Hedgehog and what it, and Knuckles, is all about. Basically, it is a set up for things to come. However, don't be fooled by the upbeat rhythm, there is darker subtext at work here, Firstly the name of the song, "KICK THE ROCK" is a reference that Knuckles needs to STOP USING COCAINE (kick the CRACK rock), and as I listened to the lyrics what I first noticed was the use of the word "Echidona" in line 1. Not only is Knuckles not an "Echidona," but Echidona is not actually a word. Knuckles is an Echidna, and for SEGA to have made such a slip up with their own character would normally be inexcusable. However, this was no slip up, this was intentional. Knuckles is beginning to realize that he isn't sure who he is anymore. This is further implied by the line "Never seen a mic hog spit like a menace" as Knuckles is also not a hedgehog. This line, specifically, may be one of the early warning signs that Sonic, and the rest of the cast, are all actually Knuckles himself, drug fueled personas created by a desperate imagination trying to hang on to the illusion. There are also some other mature themes briefly glanced over in this song like sex, Knuckles's often rash and violent nature, and of course drug references. The idea of Knuckles using cocaine is further implied by Knuckles's constant paranoia regarding the safety of his "Master Emerald.” Although this would not explain the extreme level of hallucinations he experiences throughout the story, it is never implied that Knuckles is only taking one type of drug so he could, in fact, be partaking of multiple substances. Now lets take a look at the 2nd stage of Knuckles's story, "Pumpkin Hill" the song played in this stage is called "A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup". Here we begin to see Knuckles slowly begin to succumb to his paranoia as the once wistful valleys of the Wild Canyon are twisted and contorted into the nightmare realm now known only as Pumpkin Hill. The important things to recognize are the metaphors implied through the Ghosts and Pumpkins. Basically, the ghosts represent the few remaining scraps of Knuckles's conscious, waking mind that realize the truth of his situation where as the pumpkins are the hallucinations, created by his subconscious in self-defense against recognizing reality. As Knuckles comes closer to the truth of his dream world's fabrication, they begin to transform into horrifying abominations in an attempt to ward him away back into their comforting embrace. This is further expounded upon in the title, "A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup," that denotes the fact that this wretched dream scape in which Knuckles now resides was, originally, a creation of his waking mind attempting to escape its frustrations with the world. This is also the first song in which the true nature of the Master Emerald is revealed. The Master Emerald is, in actuality, Knuckles's mind. Every time it comes close to completion it is broken apart as he suffers yet another mental break down, further isolating him from the reality which he so feverishly denies. The two most interesting lines here are those of 8 and 9 in the second stanza. Knuckles explains that his "graveyard theory" is that a ghost tried to approach him but "got leery." Let's look at it from the perspective of the ghost as a metaphor for Knuckles's waking mind. Knuckles's conscious mind, the one that is aware of the falsity of the illusion, approaches him attempting to bring him back into reality. However, it gets "leery" before it is able to do so. Now what does leery mean? Well the traditional definition is a caution brought about by completely rational fears, realistic fears. Think about that, realistic fears. This is just another example of the masterful word play at work here. The ghost is not afraid of being harmed by the corporeal Knuckles, it is afraid that he is not capable of handling reality without doing irreversible harm to himself. Knuckles then begins frantically climbing, the menacing anecdotes issuing forth from the pumpkins corrupting his every thought, trying to find any semblance of rational behind the events that are beginning to tear his world apart. He then jumps off and begins flying deeper. Deeper not into darkness, but into his own consciousness, desperately searching for answers.
The next stage *Aquatic Mine* has a problem with the song entitled *DIVE INTO THE MELLOW* is that it implies that Knuckles has lapsed back into hallucination and is farther from the truth than ever. In actuality, that is not the case, at least not yet. The use of "mellow" in the title is meant to invoke a feeling of almost reaching that point of clarity. Basically, this is the point in the story where Knuckles reaches out towards reality, almost manages to finally, after so long, touch it, but inevitably falls back into darkness, The music here is meant to be a bit more erratic, to convey the idea that Knuckles is frantically searching but also very much confused with the concept of who he actually is and why the world around him is shifting into a dark, antagonistic nightmare realm. This is when we begin to see Knuckles questioning the world around him. He begins to question why things are the way they are, even somewhat resenting it as is evident in the lines:
"Makes you wanna sit back, enjoy the life
And do the things you like doin', get to shine
It sure beats fighting with the foes all the time
But I gotta do it, they always stay out of line"
But there is also a profound confusion ailing Knuckles. He feels lost in his own home, in his own mind, and he is still plagued by demonic visions, his subconscious still mangling itself into an ever-darker form. He feels trapped, like he is drowning in it all with no hope left of finding a way out. But there is still one light left, miniscule though it may be. He remains determined. He has no goal, or even any way of knowing exactly what it is that he is searching, but he refuses to back down. It is that trait that defines Knuckles, but also leads him to his eventual downfall.
The next stage entitled "Death Chamber" has metaphors in the song *Deeper* that suggest that this is the climax of the story and where everything starts to fall apart for Knuckles. This is where Knuckle’s darkest fears finally take over and drop him into a terrifying realm known as Death Chamber. He breaks, almost instantly. The visions he is confronted with prove to much for him to handle and his mind finally snaps. It is in this piece that the construction of the Sonic Universe as a lucid hallucination is brought to bear and the truth of Knuckle’s situation is exposed in full force. The lyrical aspect of this song is actually incredibly minimal, and as such almost every single line is packed with meaning:
"From front to back all I see is stones
I'm glad that I don't call this home"
This is the beginning of the song when Knuckles starts to panic. He knows that what he is seeing isn’t right, but he is still apprehensive. He is actually starting to realize what has been going on, but he doesn’t want to accept it. We can see this apprehension specifically in “I don’t call this home.” This statement wasn’t prompted; in fact he had no reason to say it at all. Except it IS his home, it is his mind, but he wants to believe above all hope that this is just another horrible hole in the earth that his emerald somehow fell into.
The next verse:
"Eggman wants to steal our soul, keep the Emeralds and build a throne"
Is very interesting and really brings to bear the crux of the story. Eggman wants to steal our soul? I’m pretty sure that has never been Eggman’s MO, and notice the wording. He wants to steal “our” “soul.” Not “Our souls” or “My soul”, “our soul.” This is further confirmed by the reemergence of the idea of the Master Emerald. Once again the idea of the emerald as the pieces of Knuckle’s mind is brought up again, with Eggman, who we can only assume at this point is the ultimate manifestation of Knuckle’s damaged psyche, wants to build a throne out of the emerald so that he can gain control of the Echidna and keep him safe from reality once and for all. Then this verse:
"Not if I can help at all
I will not let him take it over"
Need I say more?
Well I will,
Now we come to what may be(in my opinion) one of the most simultaneously beautiful and terrifying pieces of music ever created. The Argument.
"Sonic, what are you doing here?"
"I heard you were on a quest for the Master Emerald"
"You know me and you don't get along"
"I don't think that's the point right now, Knuckles
I know how much that emerald means to you and I wanna help get it back
Stop bein' stubborn and think"
"Well, I guess you're right"
"Ya damn right Knuckles"
"I know Eggman's secret station's here somewhere All we have to do is find it"
"I know we'll need a key to get inside
That's our only way to find it So LET'S GO"
This part can be a little difficult to follow, so allow me to break it down.
Just as Knuckles is about to give in, perhaps even opting to commit suicide, Sonic appears out of nowhere and urges him to go on, to not give up and keep charging ahead. Obviously, if there was any doubt, this pretty much seals the fact that Sonic is just another personality created by Knuckles, but there is more to it than that. It was generally a consensus at the time that, much like Eggman, Sonic is the avatar of the remaining pieces of Knuckle’s waking mind and most likely always has been. It is in this time of need that Knuckle’s conscious mind finally refuses to obey the rules of this warped reality and sends a messenger in the guise of one of Knuckle’s own creations to guide him to the truth, to guide him to the key to escape his self created prison.
The next stage "Meteor Herd* and its song *Space Trip Steps* has surprisingly very little narrative, but obviously the first thing most listeners will notice is that Knuckles and Sonic are now in space and, as Knuckles puts it, they “left from our home.” This is not to imply that they have physically left home, as I’m sure you are all already aware, but they have left the realm of Knuckles’s subconscious completely. They have ascended to a new plane, perhaps even some kind of spirit dimension, to finally confront and kill Eggman. As they dodge meteors to reach Eggman, it was speculated that the meteors were probably the subconscious finally resorting to physical violence against Knuckles, perhaps even causing him to harm himself in real life, Knuckles notes that he has a crazy look in his face. This is not actually because Eggman looks weird, but because he is no longer Eggman at all. He has adopted a new nightmarish form that is the true avatar of Knuckles’s delusional state, but Knuckles himself fails to notice that he has become overwhelmed completely with determination.
After much research I was able to find the original ending to Ohtami Tomoya's version of Sonic Adventure 2, He is the master mind behind all of this dark subtext hidden in SA2.
Finale – Find Myself (Snow Bank Mountain)
In the original version of Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles would defeat Eggman only to fall to earth, landing a top a gigantic snow covered mountain, which he would then snowboard down, much akin to the first Sonic level of the game. Ohtami Tomoya intended that Snow Bank mountain was, in fact, a mountain of drugs and that having been exhausted in the final battle with Eggman that his subconscious took the opportunity to take back control of Knuckles and send him, quite literally, spiraling down into oblivion. I assume that the ride down the mountain is paranoid Knuckles who has lost all control on a deranged drug spree as Knuckles’s true self turns out to be the animalistic, impulse driven drug fiend he had been all along and there never was truly any hope for a release for him other than death.
However I found a revised less obvious ending Ohtami Tomoya wrote out without caring about SEGA's bullshit, He had made a masterfully crafted tale and he wasnt about to let SEGA stop him from telling the fans the true story.
"The credits themselves would be the multiple personalities of Knuckles, the friends he had come to love and cherish over the years he spent with them, slowly disappearing from him as he slipped more and more back into reality as he cruised down the mountain. Knuckles would never face the camera, he would never look back until the game was over. There, in fact, most likely were NEVER to be any lyrics, an eerie silence juxtaposed next to nearly two hours of nonstop monologue.
The game would end with a cut to black and complete silence as the Sonic Team logo came up for one last time and simply hung there, waiting for the player to provide input for the game to continue.
The player themselves would have to cast away Sonic, not only a character that gamers around the world have known and loved for decades, but also the last and only true friend Knuckles had ever had, even if he was imaginary.
The player themselves would have to pull the final plug on Knuckles’s warped reality and finally set him free."
Truly a masterpiece of modern media.
The next stage *Aquatic Mine* has a problem with the song entitled *DIVE INTO THE MELLOW* is that it implies that Knuckles has lapsed back into hallucination and is farther from the truth than ever. In actuality, that is not the case, at least not yet. The use of "mellow" in the title is meant to invoke a feeling of almost reaching that point of clarity. Basically, this is the point in the story where Knuckles reaches out towards reality, almost manages to finally, after so long, touch it, but inevitably falls back into darkness, The music here is meant to be a bit more erratic, to convey the idea that Knuckles is frantically searching but also very much confused with the concept of who he actually is and why the world around him is shifting into a dark, antagonistic nightmare realm. This is when we begin to see Knuckles questioning the world around him. He begins to question why things are the way they are, even somewhat resenting it as is evident in the lines:
"Makes you wanna sit back, enjoy the life
And do the things you like doin', get to shine
It sure beats fighting with the foes all the time
But I gotta do it, they always stay out of line"
But there is also a profound confusion ailing Knuckles. He feels lost in his own home, in his own mind, and he is still plagued by demonic visions, his subconscious still mangling itself into an ever-darker form. He feels trapped, like he is drowning in it all with no hope left of finding a way out. But there is still one light left, miniscule though it may be. He remains determined. He has no goal, or even any way of knowing exactly what it is that he is searching, but he refuses to back down. It is that trait that defines Knuckles, but also leads him to his eventual downfall.
The next stage entitled "Death Chamber" has metaphors in the song *Deeper* that suggest that this is the climax of the story and where everything starts to fall apart for Knuckles. This is where Knuckle’s darkest fears finally take over and drop him into a terrifying realm known as Death Chamber. He breaks, almost instantly. The visions he is confronted with prove to much for him to handle and his mind finally snaps. It is in this piece that the construction of the Sonic Universe as a lucid hallucination is brought to bear and the truth of Knuckle’s situation is exposed in full force. The lyrical aspect of this song is actually incredibly minimal, and as such almost every single line is packed with meaning:
"From front to back all I see is stones
I'm glad that I don't call this home"
This is the beginning of the song when Knuckles starts to panic. He knows that what he is seeing isn’t right, but he is still apprehensive. He is actually starting to realize what has been going on, but he doesn’t want to accept it. We can see this apprehension specifically in “I don’t call this home.” This statement wasn’t prompted; in fact he had no reason to say it at all. Except it IS his home, it is his mind, but he wants to believe above all hope that this is just another horrible hole in the earth that his emerald somehow fell into.
The next verse:
"Eggman wants to steal our soul, keep the Emeralds and build a throne"
Is very interesting and really brings to bear the crux of the story. Eggman wants to steal our soul? I’m pretty sure that has never been Eggman’s MO, and notice the wording. He wants to steal “our” “soul.” Not “Our souls” or “My soul”, “our soul.” This is further confirmed by the reemergence of the idea of the Master Emerald. Once again the idea of the emerald as the pieces of Knuckle’s mind is brought up again, with Eggman, who we can only assume at this point is the ultimate manifestation of Knuckle’s damaged psyche, wants to build a throne out of the emerald so that he can gain control of the Echidna and keep him safe from reality once and for all. Then this verse:
"Not if I can help at all
I will not let him take it over"
Need I say more?
Well I will,
Now we come to what may be(in my opinion) one of the most simultaneously beautiful and terrifying pieces of music ever created. The Argument.
"Sonic, what are you doing here?"
"I heard you were on a quest for the Master Emerald"
"You know me and you don't get along"
"I don't think that's the point right now, Knuckles
I know how much that emerald means to you and I wanna help get it back
Stop bein' stubborn and think"
"Well, I guess you're right"
"Ya damn right Knuckles"
"I know Eggman's secret station's here somewhere All we have to do is find it"
"I know we'll need a key to get inside
That's our only way to find it So LET'S GO"
This part can be a little difficult to follow, so allow me to break it down.
Just as Knuckles is about to give in, perhaps even opting to commit suicide, Sonic appears out of nowhere and urges him to go on, to not give up and keep charging ahead. Obviously, if there was any doubt, this pretty much seals the fact that Sonic is just another personality created by Knuckles, but there is more to it than that. It was generally a consensus at the time that, much like Eggman, Sonic is the avatar of the remaining pieces of Knuckle’s waking mind and most likely always has been. It is in this time of need that Knuckle’s conscious mind finally refuses to obey the rules of this warped reality and sends a messenger in the guise of one of Knuckle’s own creations to guide him to the truth, to guide him to the key to escape his self created prison.
The next stage "Meteor Herd* and its song *Space Trip Steps* has surprisingly very little narrative, but obviously the first thing most listeners will notice is that Knuckles and Sonic are now in space and, as Knuckles puts it, they “left from our home.” This is not to imply that they have physically left home, as I’m sure you are all already aware, but they have left the realm of Knuckles’s subconscious completely. They have ascended to a new plane, perhaps even some kind of spirit dimension, to finally confront and kill Eggman. As they dodge meteors to reach Eggman, it was speculated that the meteors were probably the subconscious finally resorting to physical violence against Knuckles, perhaps even causing him to harm himself in real life, Knuckles notes that he has a crazy look in his face. This is not actually because Eggman looks weird, but because he is no longer Eggman at all. He has adopted a new nightmarish form that is the true avatar of Knuckles’s delusional state, but Knuckles himself fails to notice that he has become overwhelmed completely with determination.
After much research I was able to find the original ending to Ohtami Tomoya's version of Sonic Adventure 2, He is the master mind behind all of this dark subtext hidden in SA2.
Finale – Find Myself (Snow Bank Mountain)
In the original version of Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles would defeat Eggman only to fall to earth, landing a top a gigantic snow covered mountain, which he would then snowboard down, much akin to the first Sonic level of the game. Ohtami Tomoya intended that Snow Bank mountain was, in fact, a mountain of drugs and that having been exhausted in the final battle with Eggman that his subconscious took the opportunity to take back control of Knuckles and send him, quite literally, spiraling down into oblivion. I assume that the ride down the mountain is paranoid Knuckles who has lost all control on a deranged drug spree as Knuckles’s true self turns out to be the animalistic, impulse driven drug fiend he had been all along and there never was truly any hope for a release for him other than death.
However I found a revised less obvious ending Ohtami Tomoya wrote out without caring about SEGA's bullshit, He had made a masterfully crafted tale and he wasnt about to let SEGA stop him from telling the fans the true story.
"The credits themselves would be the multiple personalities of Knuckles, the friends he had come to love and cherish over the years he spent with them, slowly disappearing from him as he slipped more and more back into reality as he cruised down the mountain. Knuckles would never face the camera, he would never look back until the game was over. There, in fact, most likely were NEVER to be any lyrics, an eerie silence juxtaposed next to nearly two hours of nonstop monologue.
The game would end with a cut to black and complete silence as the Sonic Team logo came up for one last time and simply hung there, waiting for the player to provide input for the game to continue.
The player themselves would have to cast away Sonic, not only a character that gamers around the world have known and loved for decades, but also the last and only true friend Knuckles had ever had, even if he was imaginary.
The player themselves would have to pull the final plug on Knuckles’s warped reality and finally set him free."
Truly a masterpiece of modern media.
