All this talk of Gerald has given me an idea. I think I'll storytime Gerald's diary and un-redact all the missing parts
>>11676I couldn't help it, my true fetish is puns!
>>11694Nice!
>>11695Despite arguably being the most important character in SA2, we see very little of his direct actions. I think this is 100% intentional as he's an order of magnitude more intelligent than Eggman or Tails, and demonstrates it by so effectively puppetmastering everything 50 years after his death
>>11696Correct, although he had many contingencies. The first plan was to have Shadow collect all 7 emeralds and blow up the Earth with the eclipse cannon, then crash the ARK into the Earth if Shadow had a change of heart, and then have the Biolizard crash it if Shadow somehow worked against him. Obviously he didn't account for two hedgehogs going super, combining their chaos control abilities, and teleporting the ARK back into place
>>11698A perfect followup to the last one!
>>11705Some really great dialogue here. It's nice to see them fight but still obviously care for each other. I kinda feel like Tails is closer to his Boom personality with all the sarcastic comments he's making. Not that I mind!
>>11708TLDR: It's mentioned in one of the reports Rouge uncovers and brought up in Rouge and Shadow's conversations that his memories might be altered. There's no way for Gerald to reprogram the ARK from his prison cell, but we do know Shadow's been having issues with his memories.
That's one of the most fun and frustrating things about SA2, a lot of it you have to read between the lines (or read interviews with Sonic Team). With Sega exiting the console market and suffering serious financial losses, it wasn't clear what would happen to Sega and Sonic Team, so the development of SA2 should be viewed as their swan song.
I've written before about how it was ambiguous whether Sonic was the original ultimate lifeform, but TLDR: if Sonic Team never got to make another Sonic game, then Sonic was the hedgehog Gerald created on the ARK that bonded with Maria, whose capsule was never found (but opened ~45 years later, releasing an amnesiac blue hedgehog), and Shadow was made on Prison Island by a now-insane Gerald as a weapon for GUN, but imprinted with his will and false memories of Maria.
Of course, they did get to make more games, and while they kept this plot in Sonic Battle, by Heroes they'd scrapped it for Shadow being the original ultimate lifeform. More context was added to Shadow's past in Heroes and StH, but if we just go by the events of SA2 and ignore all the implied parts, then the "canon" story is: Maria gets sick, Gerald allies himself with GUN and begins researching a cure under Project Shadow, creating artificial chaos and the Biolizard aboard the ARK before finally creating the ultimate lifeform Shadow. He also builds the eclipse canon, which can only be powered by the chaos emeralds.
GUN gets paranoid and shuts Project Shadow down, killing the researchers and Maria, but not before Shadow escapes. GUN find Shadow's capsule and bring him and Gerald to Prison Island, where Gerald's to turn Shadow into a weapon for them. Gerald's gone insane from grief and implants false memories (i.e., his will) into Shadow. I'd argue he actually implants a copy of himself, but that's speculation.
Either way, GUN finds out what he did to Shadow and executes him, putting Shadow on ice. Eggman wakes Shadow up 50 years later after getting a copy of his grandfather's diary. Things then happen as you see them in the game (Shadow steals a chaos emerald, GUN pins the blame on Sonic to cover up their dirty laundry, Shadow collects the rest of the emeralds, etc).
What's important, but never explicitly stated is what Shadow's doing when we're focusing on Rouge or Eggman when they're on the ARK. It's actually him that reprograms the ARK to crash into Earth, although he may not be conscious of this. I personally think when Shadow's off-screen, it's Gerald in control. I also think he reprogrammed the Biolizard to crash the ARK as a contingency, and judging from how the scenes were shot in the Sonic X adaption, likely uploaded his consciousness into the Biolizard as well.
>>11721>in the next issue, it's up to Sonic, Tails, and a random Coyote, Rabbit and Walrus to save Acorn Village (and its scantily clad and improbably busty Chipmunk/Squirrel mayor) from Eggman's latest scheme!I'd read it!
