It kind of also explains why Eggman is the way he is. In his view his grandfather was a great scientist who was used and then later destroyed by the government so it's stands to reason that Eggman doesn't want to answer to anyone but himself.
>Frontiers adds Sage, Eggmans new daughter, Eggman even talks about his childhood and compares his love for Sage to (everyones, but imo primarily Gerald's) love for Maria >in the podcast Flynn says that Eggman will now fight much harder for his goals because he now values Sage so much he wants to give the world to her >Shadow Gens expands on Robotnik family and adds Marias sister >T. person, ciphers and the "they dont know" barcode on the journal WHAT IS HE COOKING?!
What if Shadow meets Maria’s sister, now grown up and having a child of her own. This can give Shadow a second chance in protecting a child after failing to protect Maria. This would be perfect character progression and good way for Sega to have their own version of Hope Robotnik.
@@rickyrackey7930 yeah, I always felt something like that would be great character development for Shadow as a way to move on. But hopefully Sonic X Shadow Generations is the last game where Sega keeps using nostagia to sell. Really hope they start to do some original content, Ironically they kinda mirror Shadow in SA2/Shadow 05, current Sonic franchise is stuck in the past.
Maria is a interesting character based how the story reacts to her. Her whole family is basically destroyed inside out het her relationship with Shadow blossomed into one that now has someone protecting the planet as long as he lives. It's fascinating how one person did so much by existing.
I mentioned this when I was talking about Eggman with other fans, but I’ll say it here since it also related to Gerald. It’s so tragic as well as ironic that G.U.N.’s actions not only led to Gerald, who was a benevolent scientist who valued his family just as much as his work, being driven to insanity after everything he was put through to save Maria resulted in her demise, but also indirectly led to a different member of this family to become one of the planet’s greatest threats to its freedom.
Something I never considered till reading this journal, is that Gerald probably died before Eggman was born. Meaning he never even knew he existed. Eggman has said he always looked up to his grandfather, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he personally knew him. Gerald himself has never been shown acknowledging his grandson (Sonic Moive 3 notwithstanding). And this journal has him getting excited by another granddaughter shortly before everything goes wrong.
I think Gerald was still alive but Maria was dead before Eggman's birth. Imo Eggman's family was really messed up due to the tragedy and Gerald was too consumed by revenge of destroying humanity thus explaining why he never mentioned eggman.
Which is probably why eggman became such a bad person. Eggman never had good parent figures because everybody was too broken to give him the childhood he needed. @SuperMophie
Everyone Maria loves dies, suffers, or both. Think about it. Maria loved the Biolizard - Biolizard mutates into an angry tumor-ridden monster/cyborg in constant pain Maria loved her family - They were devastated by her loss and were split apart even before that Maria loved Gerald - Gerald underwent sever mental strain and was executed via firing squad Maria loved Abe - Abe lost both of his parents during the raid, and mentally suffers because of their loss and Maria's Maria presumably loved the scientists and staff - They were all executed and their families suffered Maria loved Shadow - Well, you know that went. And he still sometimes has PTSD to this day Maria was both a tremendous blessing and curse at the same time. Shows just how impactful she was apparently.
The biolizard was the most tragic of all these characters. In truth all it wanted was someone to love it. But being a reptile… no one ever did. If the government hadn’t tortured it… it would have been a perfect ultimate life form along with shadow.
I'm surprised no one seemed to have noticed the obvious musical reference, something Ian Flynn is quiet known for doing, added in entry 428. "The president keeps prompting me with his quest to unlock the mysteries of life." As in E.G.G.M.A.N.'s "Wanting to unlock the mysteries of life"? That's not a complaint btw, I just found it funny upon realization.
HOLY S**T. I never caught that reference when I first read it and I’m usually good at catching little details as I was referencing everything from start to finish. MAN, now I feel foolish. Thank you for that, Maxus.
@SorenAlba54 oh trust me, I didn't notice the reference myself until weeks later lol You can get so immersed into the writing that you barely notice it's there.
The one character more tragic than the Ultimate Lifeform: his (originally) benevolent creator. The journal was TRULY a treat for “lore heads”, especially those who hold Shadow as their favorite character & appreciate his story. I preordered the game twice (I wanted a physical copy but PS4 didn’t get that in America), but I have no regrets on the $110. The journal was a great bonus & Shadow Generations in itself was so good despite the short length that I’ll most likely get a 3rd copy sometime down the road for more save files
It's sad that we’re not going to have this version of Gerald in the movie based on the recent TV spots and music video that he's just a crazy goofball because his characterization is too dark to adapt in the film made for kids, but hey at least we got this journal to delve into Gerald’s mind of who he was before becoming insane, such a tragic character
@ I mean, that could be a possibility, but like I don't think we’re going to get the level of seriousness of Gerald from the games in the movie because they've taken out his death of being executed by a firing squad and seeing the recent music video of him and Eggman dancing and I know this Jim Carrey's last performance and he wants to bring out more of comedic energy into his performance as Eggman, but Gerald has to be a character taken seriously like Shadow because he lost his mind over what happened to Maria and wants to destroy the world because of it, same with Shadow except he didn't go insane as Gerald did so maybe in this version of Gerald we would've seen how messed his mind was and he enacted his plans if he was alive
While I agree we definitely won’t get this version of Gerald for the movie, I’ve heard that dancing spot supposedly is in the credits, so there may be hope for old Gerald in the movie yet.
@@AceCardGamingTo be fair, there isn’t a lot of Gerald that we know about to get a personality on him. I mean, the movie was almost done or still in production when The game was announced, finished and released We never got any info on the man from the games besides his execution and journals for the games. All we know is that he was a man who wanted to help people that went insane from love and grief. I mean, he was dead and not even Eggman knew much about him and he’s family. He’s basically a blank state is what I’m getting at.
If she’s alive she’s likely will be in her late 40 early 50’s,so maybe introduce a teenage daughter ,wishful thinking introduce hope Kintbor from Archie comics. I mean shadow deserves a second chance at happiness 😅
Welp, the creation has surpassed the creator. Where doctor couldn't escape madness, Shadow found a path to a better future. For everyone. They both lost everything, but in the end, Shadow redeemed himself, and, by proxy, Gerald.
I would love to think that the T in the opening of the journal is definitely Maria’s sister, but I would definitely think her sister’s name will be Topaz. It makes sense to me, because not only we could have an anime character name in the games, but also to be lore character that she’s also a Robotnik as well
7:41 The president "requests" immortality, gets rejected and suddenly out of nowhere, Maria gets sick with a mystery illness? Sounds like that president got to both keep the GUN presence and motivation for Gerald to figure out immortality. I wonder whatever happened to that particular president?
I love the journal shows us that even if he was not malicious, that ego and hubris trait does seem to be shared amongst the Robotnik family. Gerald continued to rationalize that he could solve everything that went wrong himself because he was a genius. He'd have never done the things Ivo does (at least not while sane) but that does reflect on how that little trait and be projected, reflected and then twisted as the family goes on. Doesn't surprise that, given how he idolized his grandpa's genius and from the sound of Frontiers, felt that he was somewhat neglected of attention by his family, Eggman would turn the way he was. Also small little detail that just hit me: Gerald tries to rationalize to himself about sealing the Biolizard with not wanting to upset Maria even tho he was the one who tested on the creature. Never really crossed on me until now there's a parallel; Gerald is benevolent but has to rationalize his morals, Eggman is not and does it with his ego, but both of their work comes at the expenses of trating small animals harshly for the sake of their vision of progress.
@StarMechV Gerald was always supposed to parallel Eggman. Like how Shadow was a reimagined Sonic for the early 2000s in line with the pop-culture they were inspired by (superhero antiheroes like Venom or Wolverine or Punisher, Please Save My Earth) among wider pop-culture at the time like post-FF7 JRPGs, Gerald is Eggman reimagined for current pop-culture (think FF7, Biohazard, The Lizard from Spiderman, the X-Files, Metal Gear).
Time for the annual ArtHollow comment. This notification was the push I needed to finally read my copy of Gerald's Journal and, wow, I have been missing out. This journal is far more compelling and brilliant than I expected it would be. The artists and writers behind this have my utmost thanks and respect. As for the video, I find it interesting that your reading of Gerald's character is a bit more sinister and less golden-hearted than mine. You saw his more hopeful ideas for the Artificial Chaos (which I thought was an awesome explanation for their existence) or his relinquishing of the Chaos Drive technology to GUN as cracks in his mask, whereas I saw it as him reluctantly twisting his peaceful endeavours into potential weapons. There was no mask to me, just a good man who loved someone more than he desired goodness. The way I read it, he was proud yet still truly selfless and pure-hearted, but Maria was his one exception; Maria was the one thing he would sacrifice everything for - his morals, his relationships, even his desire to better humanity. His note that he realised he loses his patience and logical faculties when Maria is slighted supports this reading for me, and very clearly lays down how such a good man could have become what we knew him as in SA2. If Maria being slighted was enough for him to lose his temper, and her being unwell was enough to sacrifice his strong morals for, it is not hard to understand how her death was enough to push him into completely madness and despair (not to mention the fact that he had lost literally everything else too). Leave it to me to have an opposing view to you. The Eclipse Cannon's creation being given this extra context was incredible to me, I must say. I love Gerald's logic of making it as a "gotcha" for both factions who were using him, and his intentions for it as a weapon for Shadow to use to save the world. This journal not only gave us a deeper look into the franchise's most tragic and compelling story, but also gave us some very good retroactive explanations for some old ideas. And your idea that we may be seeing Maria's sister become important in a future story for Shadow was something I had not considered as very plausible before this video. I kind if agree: they really have been bringing her up a bit more than I would have thought they would if she didn't matter. Her finding her way into a position at GUN, someone who works under Commander Towers, the only other human left who cares as deeply about The Ark incident as Towers does, sounds very compelling to me. Her relationship to Shadow and Towers could be really interesting, and it could be a good way to give Shadow something to keep him explicitly connected to Maria without digging her back up all the time. And since she is a Robotnik, her relationship to Eggman could be very interesting too - the Robotnik from one side of the family who works to better humanity and the Robotnik from the other side who works to rule over humanity. The agent being a reference to Topaz is a great idea, but it being Maria's younger sister is a great idea too. I am honestly surprised they were allowed to tell a story as genuinely tragic and dark as this. The movie definitely won't give us something this dark, but I am very much looking forward to Paramount's version of events. Long comment over. Thank you for yet another great video for me to rewatch over and over as I wait for your next one. This journal was truly an amazing read that I will probably revisit once I 100% Shadow Generations. (Also, the idea of Shadow the Hedgehog [2005]'s President seeking immorality so fervently is so opposed to the shockingly genuine and caring leader that Shadow [2005] portrayed him as that my mind assumed that it must have been his predecessor. I wonder if we will ever get United Federation President lore)
I think it’s funny that you think we disagree on anything! I believe Gerald definitely has a heart of gold and built all of his creations with the best of intentions. I just also think he lies to himself when he hands these creations over to GUN that there will be any non weapon interest in his work. I think he soothes his own conscience with idealism in these tough moments. I also said that I believe Gerald would 100% have walked away from the Ark were it not for Maria, so we’re in agreement on Gerald’s character being of the highest moral fibre. He just allowed himself to be used as he was also using GUN and the United Federations money in turn. Glad you enjoyed the video! Best of luck with the rest of SxS Gens.
The SA2/Shadow05 president is definitely NOT the one who asked Gerald for pursuit of immortality. Rouge's report from the SA2 Perfect Guide (JP) said that was requested by the president from back then, about 13 presidencies ago.
@@MaxusFox23 Yeah I actually forgot to respond to that party. I just used that footage as flavour, the president in SA2/Shadow 05 is far too young to be the same one as 50 years previous.
@@AceCardGaming Well then, my mistake! We are in agreement. It turns out that watching a video three times doesn't make you immune to missing some things. Many thanks for the well wishes. Best of luck to you too with your upcoming projects.
@@MaxusFox23 Yeah, my assumption was that it was a previous president. I just thought the image of the seemingly golden-hearted President we see in the modern day being obsessed with immortality was such a drastic contrast that I could not help but be amused. I have never heard of this Perfect Guide though. It sounds like it has some interesting information in it.
For Angel Island's location aspect, I've talked with other folks and we think it may relate to the Archie depiction of the Island constantly on the move, mostly considering how it's a case of in SA1 it perfectly fits into another landmass, but then in the Classic based games it seems to just be over random spots of the ocean, like how Knuckles sees and comes across Trip's island. Granted they were also talking about how continental shifts should be a big factor but personally I feel there's probably like some element of Chaos Energy manipulation going on there.
At first I only wanted the journal and expected to return the game (especially if it was just Sonic generation with just two or three short Shadow levels I am glad that I was wrong). I have always been interested in Shadow’s “creation” story as well as learning about Gerald and Maria and this journal did not fail to disappoint me. It fascinated me how kind/respectful Gerald was as well as how pressured he was by Gun, the president, and his own family. It is no surprise why he was so desperate for results especially when Maria is so confident in his abilities. He must had felt like a prisoner (lol). He tried so hard to help people only to be pushed by higher powers to make weapons and only for his work to award him with Maria’s death, having a rift in his family, and being put to death by Gun. It makes me feel so much sympathy for him and Maria. Also I am so happy to know that the biolizard was not a lizard but a salamander (a lizard makes a poor specimen to test immortality on and it seemed like a silly mistake to me and the biolizard looks more amphibious to me). It was very nice to read how positive Maria was during her time in Ark and how she had positive relationships with everyone she met. While I didn’t get every reference in the journal it was such an interesting experience and makes me wish that we had more. While I love the idea that the T is Maria’s sister or even Topaz I would not be surprised if it was Tom Wachowski as small nod to the movie franchise. Either way I hope that Maria’s sister makes an appearance in the future.
In the Japanese version, the person “T” is also known as Tori. Probably short for Victoria, who might be Maria’s sister. It’s possible that Eggman gave her the diary for safe-keeping and she turned it over to Abraham.
25:32 This theory makes sense. But I really don’t want it to be the case as I really want the main series to try adopting characters from other continuities. I don’t care how they are adopted as long as they are as close as possible. Like Topaz being the daughter of Maria’s sister and is also very curious about discovering more of their family’s history on the Ark, is something I’m fine with as another thing to attach to her character for this new version of her.
I remember someone saying that when historians finds a diary or any written personal document, it is the equivalent of finding a treasure trove and you know what? THEY WERE RIGHT! For someone who has an immeasurable desire for knowledge when it comes to the exposition, it was a GOLDMINE. So much so that I refuse to read anything until I’ve acquired every page of that journal. After reading it, I can never again look at Sonic Adventure 2 the same way after watching it from Sonic X. It was a shame that a lot of information was lost over time but it explained so much of how everything was all led up to the moment where we now stand. Professor Gerald Robotnik was truly a victim of circumstance because of how his talents were used for nefarious purposes. It now reminds me of Singed aka Dr. Reveck from Arcane when he was asked about his invention of Shimmer in the first place. His response was one word and one word only: love. In this case, Maria was his main reason for living when she was born; after the establishment of Space Colony ARK. Despite all the turmoil he was facing, she reminded him of what all of his efforts were for. He went as far as allying himself to a malevolent alien race to provide him the final piece of the puzzle for the creation of the Ultimate Lifeform, which is very close as making a deal with the Devil himself. Hell, if not for her, Shadow the Hedgehog would not be the individual that he is now since she laid the groundwork of his clothing as a means of control for his newfound abilities. From his entire life as a scientist who, despite his failings, was right about one thing: Maria is their one bright light amongst the darkness of this world. Near the conclusion of his spin-off game from 2005, both the President and Commander Tower recognized their mistake of branding him as a monster when in reality, he was but a man who only wanted his granddaughter, his real legacy, to live. As a result, they decided to commemorate him since he gave Shadow the key to triumph over Black Doom and his forces. On a side note, I personally believed that Tails was the one who acquired the journal with the help of Eggman until everyone hinted that it was most likely Topaz. However, given your reasons as to why it must be Maria’s sister, I’m inclined to agree. Thank you for this one, Ace. Can’t wait to see the movie on opening night.
As much as I as a Sonic x fan would love for Topaz to be canonized (her friendship with Rouge is one of the best parts of the first two seasons), I do hope T is Maria’s sister somehow. It could be cute and sweet to see especially her meeting Shadow. As well as just being a character who could also help further influence Eggman. The fact that Sage now exist and we get stuff with Maria in the next game doesn’t feel like a coincidence. With how Eggman has learned to care about family and even wonders about the feelings of his family to Maria, it could lead to her as another source of family and someone to maybe keep this arc going. Idk how he can still be a villian and I sure as hell don’t wanna see him never be an antagonist again but maybe this could lead to some anti villain qualities to come about? Or maybe we just get motws again instead of him. It’s all so facinating and I can’t wait to see more.
This is a bit of a stretch, but, what if "T" was the unused concept art woman from Sonic Unleashed? This might seem like a nonsequitur at first, but her clothing gave me very MegaMan vibes, specifically MegaMan Zero and MegaMan ZX where humans and Reploids (that franchise's advanced "replicated" androids) look almost entirely the same, so she looks like she's meant to blend in with such an environment. And who do we knows has made lifelike androids in the Sonic franchise? Eggman, of course. I'm not saying she herself would be an android, but she looks like she could be distantly related to Eggman through that, with the bonus that her outfit also looks like some sort of high-tech archeologist (think Diggers from the MegaMan Legends series), meaning that she's probably Eggman's other cousin that at first took after her father's passion for archeology and maybe joined GUN afterwards, with the more high-tech likeness of her outfit cementing the MegaMan Legends parallel since she'd be investigating an artificial moon (if you know, you know. XD). At the risk of sounding fanfic-y, since they were able to reuse the name Abraham Towers from the much more shaky legal grounds that is Archie, they could even *name* her Topaz, to harken back to the beloved Sonic X character yet at the same time "reimagine" her for the game canon. It ties all three missing plot points of the unused Unleashed concept art character that we know they have plans for, Maria's baby sister and generally the archeologically-inclined side of her father's side of the family, AND a Sonic X reference to a beloved character yet reimagined to fit into game canon, wrapping it all up in one nice Christmas present.
Ok im just throwing thing out here but what if Maria's sister is that Pink Haired girl that was cut from Unleashed. What if theu repurposed the design. If I remember right, you can see a poster of her in the Sonic 3 trailer (or a poster or something)
It’s kinda odd, yet interesting since sonic frontiers told about the chaos emerald are from space but it still confused me in how the first alien species the black arms knows about the emerald’s existence or wield chaos control? Although is it possible they aren’t only two civilizations encounter the emeralds in the void?
@AceCardGaming 13:27 Nononononono. Do you see how the E within emerald is capitalized? That means the journal is talking about the master emerald, not a chaos emerald. Notice how the chapter uses the word The and a singular word emerald. That means that he did walk upon Angel Island and knabbed the master emerald.
I was speaking from Gerald’s perspective when he first sees the Emerald on the shrine. For some silly reason I cut the part where I said he wonders if it’s the legendary Master Emerald. Big brain moment I know. 🫠
It still confuses me that they've canonised Maria and Abe being the ONLY children on the ARK. A literal space colony. With many thousands of personnel living there on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Sonic Team saying a colony the size of a city has no families there? No kids? Never made sense to me.
@BritBox777 Nothing says that the scientists and anyone else on the Ark had enough women among them to have loads of children on the Ark. And even then nothing says that the scientists weren't allowed to come and go as they pleased if it didn't conflict with tasks or that all the ones with children/other family would insist on bringing them up on the Ark if they even could spare the room.
@BritBox777 That would back what I said. There is nothing strange about a space colony with not that many aboard and no confirmation there that much of them were women having few to no children in it. Maria's parents didn't support her being there to begin with. The G.U.N. Commander's parents can well have just been the only ones aboard with any children who had to take theirs with them to the Ark if there wasn't anyone else who'd watch over him.
Well, the ARK was only intended for scientific research originally. No different than living in a research facility at a university. It’s a special privilege to be there. So most of the people there are probably just too focused on their work.
This is exactly why I would love if Sega created a second team to strictly make Shadow games or spin off media, while Sonic team focusses primarily on games revolving around Sonic, his friends and Eggman.
Hm, how very interesting and very well done Video, i hope what we get next doesn’t disappoint. By the way, Maria has a Sister? Did i missed her being mentioned? Anyway, i wonder if there any gaps that could be filled in someway, at some point?
Maria’s sister is only a recent addition. Maria mentions her in an optional conversation in Sonic X Shadow Generations and then she’s mentioned again in Gerald’s diary. Whether or not they will do anything serious with her or not remains to be seen though!
I thought gun were always the problem in this situation. They caused the death of Maria. They murdered the other scientist just a silence them and all Gerald was trying to do was save his granddaughter. Plus I understand why shadow was enraged Maria was his best friend once he lost her shadow was never the same
22:07 I wholeheartedly disagree, I think that at that point, he thinks the idea of the cannon being used against earth is completely laughable. Which only serves to show how far he will fall.
I think the idea of Gerald not being aware of psychotics and super villains who would happily destroy the world if their demands weren’t met is naive. He’s a smart man and the possibility would very likely have crossed his mind. Just my own view though.
13:40 I still don’t like the idea of only hedgehogs can properly go super. (And I guess Robo Hedgehogs since Neo Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic canonically turned Super before in IDW and 3&K respectively) Heck, Shadow’s ability to manipulate Chaos Energy comes from Black Doom’s DNA. So you could argue that he’s able to turn super because of his Black Arms DNA and not that he’s a hedgehog. But whatever, my real problem with just Hedgehogs that can go super, let alone male ones, is that it prevents other characters to have Super forms.
Never thought we would actually get to hear about Gerald Robotnik’s children especially since usually in entertainment when a grandparent and a grandchild are shown the grandparent’s children are never shown. Now I would like if Sega could finally answer as to how Dr Eggman has a descendent known as Eggman Nega since in order for that to be possible Dr Eggman would need to have at least one biological child. My current theory is that Dr Eggman once married a long time ago but abandoned his wife and child/children at some point for whatever reason.
Personally Gerald Robotnik journal just plain tragic all he wanted was to make his family whole but instead it drove him apart. As far as Maria sister’s goes I hope she get introduce in future games may be she’ll be in her late 40’s early 50’s but likely introduce a teenage daughter,I mean shadow deserves a second chance to be happy.
Also, the GUN soldier that didn’t wanna quit, actually aimed the gun at Maria, but shadow got in the way I know you said the real enemy was gone, but the real enemy was Abraham towers predecessor because the gun soldiers were just following orders. The predecessor was the one that willingly told him to do that. He’s the actual a whole and actual villain here. Also, Maria still tall shadow, but they do not hurt other people.
Love all these comments speculating and adding meaningful input to the conversation. Allow me to interject with an absolutely USELESS comment in just saying that I can't believe that its 2024 and we're getting meaningful elaboration on Project Shadow lore and everything surrounding it OFFICIALLY. If you told me about this only a few years ago I would have a heart attack on the spot!
Does the journal ever mention why Shadow looks kinda like Super Sonic? Did Gerald really based off his design because he saw the mural in the Hidden Palace Zone with Super Sonic?
It doesn’t mention that specifically. Doesn’t even say for certain why Shadow is a hedgehog but there are also many, many pages missing. Leaves a lot to the imagination!
@ Concept art has no bearing on the final lore though. I get what you’re saying, initially he wouldn’t have had quills resembling Super Sonic if those designs were used but ultimately he did end up having them.
Where was it debunked? I literally have no skin in the game and don’t really care either way. I just like when people say something is debunked, they give an official source.
Given Ian Flynn's almost comical love of references amd reverence for the series, i wouldnt put it past him and the other writers to retcon Maria's younger sister to actually be Topaz. Or at least make "Topaz" her codename within GUN.
Hey, this is just a question for you, but where do you stand on the whole shadow might be silvers father situation do you say yes or no to that as much as I ship sonic and Amy I also kind of say yes because I think Amy would be silver his mother because his shadow do you can I have good chemistry I mean it’s obvious to him he reminds him of Maria and she’s literally the one who helped him get his memory back in the very first place back in sonic adventure two and whether Sally’s Canon or not in the games and just because you haven’t been shown in the games doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist in the game universe meaning sonic might end up with her instead and I think it’s possible that supermarket has psychic powers from Amy. I mean Amy does have those fortune cards of hers from frontiers. Which would kind of make Amy I guess you could say a psychic in a way so silver, possibly getting those powers from her would make sense, even if she didn’t have those powers herself
24:07 Oh my God. It has always been canon that they are wearing shoes and gloves. Just be glad this didn't revive the human, animal, or cartoony round feet debate.
there are certain theories i'd like to share with you inregard to doctor Gerald to which i'd like to share with you : When it comes to the reasoning why GUN attacked the ARK, it probably had some thing to do with them discovering about Gerald's attempt to work with Black Doom and the Black Arms, which is actually treated as a possibility in the Japanese version of Shadow's spin off game, as the message which Charmy activate while Shadow is confronting Black Doom, in that version of the game which is the original, Gerald do NOT EVEN admit about how it is his fault for collaborating with the Black Arms, and instead it's him talking about how likely it is that GUN are gonna discover about that collaboration, WHICH WOULD make them furious, and thus, shutting down the project getting rid of anyone related to in the ARK simply for Gerald's betrayel for making a deal that could doom humanity in 50 years, and that's not even MENTIONING that this version of the game, had that moment between both Abraham Tower and the President praising shadow's resolve to save humanity and promising to follow his exemple, rather than praising Gerald him self, to which surprised me. and speaking of chaos control being some thing that Lizuka said it's exclusive to Shadow which is not really true, some thing i realized is that given the posssibility that Shadow was based of that mural in hidden palace zone, it could be possible that Gerald found even more details about the prophecy like how that being who will save the master emerald is gonna be a fast paced hedgehog rather than a mere one, and since project Shadow was specifically made as an attempt to make a being capable of controlling chaos energy to see how it's power would help cure diseases, the fact that Shadow is a bio engineered being with great power and capabilities that could evaporate most characters in the Sonic series, and Sonic is STILL equal to him IS KINDA CRAZY, which could explain why super forms are exclusive to certain characters (and this ironically could explain why knuckles being incapable of using super form or chaos energy, given that just because his race guarded the master emerald because of some incident tha wipe out most of them, do not mean they would suddenly be able to control it) other than that, it's crazy that this imply that Sonic, Shadow, and Silver are above most characters in the series. but what do you think about any of that ? let me know your thoughts rearding those implications and what they mean
@@galten7361 no, what i said has nothing to do with that, it's just i noticed a detail in the Japanese version of the game to which the dialogue from last cutscene between Abraham Tower and the President in Shadow's spin off, is mostly the President for saving the earth, and deciding to follow his exemple, with NOTHING of mention about Gerald like in the english version when he says , and given that the Japanese one is the ORIGINAL VERSION, it gives the impression that while Shadow (like Maria and the rest of other victims of the ARK) is considered innocent, (which has to do with him savving earth from the Black Arms) Gerald is still considered to be A BAD GUY in the eyes of the current GUN organisation.
@@gregtom3272 G.U.N. are not S.H.I.E.L.D. unlike in the Paramount movies or fanon. They are not portrayed as heroes in the actual games but either antagonists or in the background. Shadow has no issue smashing up their bases when they're just in the way.
The purist of good crushed by lust of greed, ego and power. The humans "GUN" valued their shiny toys and their life's than others they're supposed to protect. Ivo is unfortunately the result, causing all sorts l the harm and pain to others. A monument of all their sins you could say.
Also, is it just me or is the real one to blame for Maria’s death and what happened on the Ike was the gun commander back then because they’re the one who authorized that to happen the morning Sean will be here was pretty much just following orders since all the other soldiers, so if anything, it’s that person‘s fault, not the soldiers that person😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
It kind of also explains why Eggman is the way he is. In his view his grandfather was a great scientist who was used and then later destroyed by the government so it's stands to reason that Eggman doesn't want to answer to anyone but himself.
Not to mention how shitty and stressful the entire family would´ve been during and after all of this
>Frontiers adds Sage, Eggmans new daughter, Eggman even talks about his childhood and compares his love for Sage to (everyones, but imo primarily Gerald's) love for Maria
>in the podcast Flynn says that Eggman will now fight much harder for his goals because he now values Sage so much he wants to give the world to her
>Shadow Gens expands on Robotnik family and adds Marias sister
>T. person, ciphers and the "they dont know" barcode on the journal
WHAT IS HE COOKING?!
What if Shadow meets Maria’s sister, now grown up and having a child of her own. This can give Shadow a second chance in protecting a child after failing to protect Maria. This would be perfect character progression and good way for Sega to have their own version of Hope Robotnik.
@@rickyrackey7930 yeah, I always felt something like that would be great character development for Shadow as a way to move on.
But hopefully Sonic X Shadow Generations is the last game where Sega keeps using nostagia to sell. Really hope they start to do some original content, Ironically they kinda mirror Shadow in SA2/Shadow 05, current Sonic franchise is stuck in the past.
Maria is a interesting character based how the story reacts to her. Her whole family is basically destroyed inside out het her relationship with Shadow blossomed into one that now has someone protecting the planet as long as he lives. It's fascinating how one person did so much by existing.
I mentioned this when I was talking about Eggman with other fans, but I’ll say it here since it also related to Gerald. It’s so tragic as well as ironic that G.U.N.’s actions not only led to Gerald, who was a benevolent scientist who valued his family just as much as his work, being driven to insanity after everything he was put through to save Maria resulted in her demise, but also indirectly led to a different member of this family to become one of the planet’s greatest threats to its freedom.
Something I never considered till reading this journal, is that Gerald probably died before Eggman was born. Meaning he never even knew he existed.
Eggman has said he always looked up to his grandfather, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he personally knew him. Gerald himself has never been shown acknowledging his grandson (Sonic Moive 3 notwithstanding). And this journal has him getting excited by another granddaughter shortly before everything goes wrong.
Yeah, eggman and gerald never met - thats Sonic team's position. They went as far as to state recently that Eggman is younger than 50.
I think Gerald was still alive but Maria was dead before Eggman's birth. Imo Eggman's family was really messed up due to the tragedy and Gerald was too consumed by revenge of destroying humanity thus explaining why he never mentioned eggman.
Which is probably why eggman became such a bad person. Eggman never had good parent figures because everybody was too broken to give him the childhood he needed. @SuperMophie
Everyone Maria loves dies, suffers, or both. Think about it.
Maria loved the Biolizard - Biolizard mutates into an angry tumor-ridden monster/cyborg in constant pain
Maria loved her family - They were devastated by her loss and were split apart even before that
Maria loved Gerald - Gerald underwent sever mental strain and was executed via firing squad
Maria loved Abe - Abe lost both of his parents during the raid, and mentally suffers because of their loss and Maria's
Maria presumably loved the scientists and staff - They were all executed and their families suffered
Maria loved Shadow - Well, you know that went. And he still sometimes has PTSD to this day
Maria was both a tremendous blessing and curse at the same time. Shows just how impactful she was apparently.
Hold up since when she loved Biolizard?
@@NEXTVRAINS In Gerald's diary, you see a pic of her playing with a salamander that will eventually become the Biolizard
The biolizard was the most tragic of all these characters. In truth all it wanted was someone to love it. But being a reptile… no one ever did. If the government hadn’t tortured it… it would have been a perfect ultimate life form along with shadow.
Those aren’t tumors their necrotic abscesses. Like what someone with the bubonic plague would have.
@@BonitoJoe111pretty sure it’s a monitor lizard. But does have amphibious genes added to it for extra abilities
I'm surprised no one seemed to have noticed the obvious musical reference, something Ian Flynn is quiet known for doing, added in entry 428.
"The president keeps prompting me with his quest to unlock the mysteries of life."
As in E.G.G.M.A.N.'s "Wanting to unlock the mysteries of life"?
That's not a complaint btw, I just found it funny upon realization.
I actually did notice this! The video was just getting so long that I cut it from the final script 😅
HOLY S**T. I never caught that reference when I first read it and I’m usually good at catching little details as I was referencing everything from start to finish. MAN, now I feel foolish. Thank you for that, Maxus.
@SorenAlba54 oh trust me, I didn't notice the reference myself until weeks later lol
You can get so immersed into the writing that you barely notice it's there.
@@MaxusFox23 I understand that entirely.
@@SorenAlba54please explain it to me then
The one character more tragic than the Ultimate Lifeform: his (originally) benevolent creator. The journal was TRULY a treat for “lore heads”, especially those who hold Shadow as their favorite character & appreciate his story. I preordered the game twice (I wanted a physical copy but PS4 didn’t get that in America), but I have no regrets on the $110. The journal was a great bonus & Shadow Generations in itself was so good despite the short length that I’ll most likely get a 3rd copy sometime down the road for more save files
It's sad that we’re not going to have this version of Gerald in the movie based on the recent TV spots and music video that he's just a crazy goofball because his characterization is too dark to adapt in the film made for kids, but hey at least we got this journal to delve into Gerald’s mind of who he was before becoming insane, such a tragic character
that a front
gerald is not a goofball
@ I mean, that could be a possibility, but like I don't think we’re going to get the level of seriousness of Gerald from the games in the movie because they've taken out his death of being executed by a firing squad and seeing the recent music video of him and Eggman dancing and I know this Jim Carrey's last performance and he wants to bring out more of comedic energy into his performance as Eggman, but Gerald has to be a character taken seriously like Shadow because he lost his mind over what happened to Maria and wants to destroy the world because of it, same with Shadow except he didn't go insane as Gerald did so maybe in this version of Gerald we would've seen how messed his mind was and he enacted his plans if he was alive
You say his sa2 characterisation is too dark for a kids movie but remember they got away with it in a kids game (sa2)
While I agree we definitely won’t get this version of Gerald for the movie, I’ve heard that dancing spot supposedly is in the credits, so there may be hope for old Gerald in the movie yet.
@@AceCardGamingTo be fair, there isn’t a lot of Gerald that we know about to get a personality on him. I mean, the movie was almost done or still in production when The game was announced, finished and released
We never got any info on the man from the games besides his execution and journals for the games. All we know is that he was a man who wanted to help people that went insane from love and grief.
I mean, he was dead and not even Eggman knew much about him and he’s family.
He’s basically a blank state is what I’m getting at.
Gerald is the most interesting Sonic character and I can’t wait to see the lore in Sonic 3 with him teaming up with Shadow and Eggman.
If we get to see Maria sister reuniting with the shadow hedgehog I will be so happy to see that to happen.
Yeah same that’s what I’m saying shadow needs to find her sister and that’ll probably give him some kind of closure because she’ll remind her of Maria
@ indeed that would be really cool.
How many times does he need to get closure lmao? He already got it in Shadow05 and Shadow Gens. I REALLY hope this woman isnt Maria-2
@@KOTEBANAROT that fair point
If she’s alive she’s likely will be in her late 40 early 50’s,so maybe introduce a teenage daughter ,wishful thinking introduce hope Kintbor from Archie comics. I mean shadow deserves a second chance at happiness 😅
Welp, the creation has surpassed the creator. Where doctor couldn't escape madness, Shadow found a path to a better future. For everyone. They both lost everything, but in the end, Shadow redeemed himself, and, by proxy, Gerald.
I would love to think that the T in the opening of the journal is definitely Maria’s sister, but I would definitely think her sister’s name will be Topaz. It makes sense to me, because not only we could have an anime character name in the games, but also to be lore character that she’s also a Robotnik as well
Apparently its Tori
7:41 The president "requests" immortality, gets rejected and suddenly out of nowhere, Maria gets sick with a mystery illness? Sounds like that president got to both keep the GUN presence and motivation for Gerald to figure out immortality. I wonder whatever happened to that particular president?
I love the journal shows us that even if he was not malicious, that ego and hubris trait does seem to be shared amongst the Robotnik family. Gerald continued to rationalize that he could solve everything that went wrong himself because he was a genius. He'd have never done the things Ivo does (at least not while sane) but that does reflect on how that little trait and be projected, reflected and then twisted as the family goes on. Doesn't surprise that, given how he idolized his grandpa's genius and from the sound of Frontiers, felt that he was somewhat neglected of attention by his family, Eggman would turn the way he was.
Also small little detail that just hit me: Gerald tries to rationalize to himself about sealing the Biolizard with not wanting to upset Maria even tho he was the one who tested on the creature. Never really crossed on me until now there's a parallel; Gerald is benevolent but has to rationalize his morals, Eggman is not and does it with his ego, but both of their work comes at the expenses of trating small animals harshly for the sake of their vision of progress.
@StarMechV Gerald was always supposed to parallel Eggman. Like how Shadow was a reimagined Sonic for the early 2000s in line with the pop-culture they were inspired by (superhero antiheroes like Venom or Wolverine or Punisher, Please Save My Earth) among wider pop-culture at the time like post-FF7 JRPGs, Gerald is Eggman reimagined for current pop-culture (think FF7, Biohazard, The Lizard from Spiderman, the X-Files, Metal Gear).
Time for the annual ArtHollow comment.
This notification was the push I needed to finally read my copy of Gerald's Journal and, wow, I have been missing out. This journal is far more compelling and brilliant than I expected it would be. The artists and writers behind this have my utmost thanks and respect.
As for the video, I find it interesting that your reading of Gerald's character is a bit more sinister and less golden-hearted than mine. You saw his more hopeful ideas for the Artificial Chaos (which I thought was an awesome explanation for their existence) or his relinquishing of the Chaos Drive technology to GUN as cracks in his mask, whereas I saw it as him reluctantly twisting his peaceful endeavours into potential weapons. There was no mask to me, just a good man who loved someone more than he desired goodness. The way I read it, he was proud yet still truly selfless and pure-hearted, but Maria was his one exception; Maria was the one thing he would sacrifice everything for - his morals, his relationships, even his desire to better humanity. His note that he realised he loses his patience and logical faculties when Maria is slighted supports this reading for me, and very clearly lays down how such a good man could have become what we knew him as in SA2. If Maria being slighted was enough for him to lose his temper, and her being unwell was enough to sacrifice his strong morals for, it is not hard to understand how her death was enough to push him into completely madness and despair (not to mention the fact that he had lost literally everything else too).
Leave it to me to have an opposing view to you.
The Eclipse Cannon's creation being given this extra context was incredible to me, I must say. I love Gerald's logic of making it as a "gotcha" for both factions who were using him, and his intentions for it as a weapon for Shadow to use to save the world.
This journal not only gave us a deeper look into the franchise's most tragic and compelling story, but also gave us some very good retroactive explanations for some old ideas. And your idea that we may be seeing Maria's sister become important in a future story for Shadow was something I had not considered as very plausible before this video. I kind if agree: they really have been bringing her up a bit more than I would have thought they would if she didn't matter. Her finding her way into a position at GUN, someone who works under Commander Towers, the only other human left who cares as deeply about The Ark incident as Towers does, sounds very compelling to me. Her relationship to Shadow and Towers could be really interesting, and it could be a good way to give Shadow something to keep him explicitly connected to Maria without digging her back up all the time. And since she is a Robotnik, her relationship to Eggman could be very interesting too - the Robotnik from one side of the family who works to better humanity and the Robotnik from the other side who works to rule over humanity. The agent being a reference to Topaz is a great idea, but it being Maria's younger sister is a great idea too.
I am honestly surprised they were allowed to tell a story as genuinely tragic and dark as this. The movie definitely won't give us something this dark, but I am very much looking forward to Paramount's version of events.
Long comment over. Thank you for yet another great video for me to rewatch over and over as I wait for your next one. This journal was truly an amazing read that I will probably revisit once I 100% Shadow Generations.
(Also, the idea of Shadow the Hedgehog [2005]'s President seeking immorality so fervently is so opposed to the shockingly genuine and caring leader that Shadow [2005] portrayed him as that my mind assumed that it must have been his predecessor. I wonder if we will ever get United Federation President lore)
I think it’s funny that you think we disagree on anything! I believe Gerald definitely has a heart of gold and built all of his creations with the best of intentions. I just also think he lies to himself when he hands these creations over to GUN that there will be any non weapon interest in his work. I think he soothes his own conscience with idealism in these tough moments.
I also said that I believe Gerald would 100% have walked away from the Ark were it not for Maria, so we’re in agreement on Gerald’s character being of the highest moral fibre. He just allowed himself to be used as he was also using GUN and the United Federations money in turn.
Glad you enjoyed the video! Best of luck with the rest of SxS Gens.
The SA2/Shadow05 president is definitely NOT the one who asked Gerald for pursuit of immortality. Rouge's report from the SA2 Perfect Guide (JP) said that was requested by the president from back then, about 13 presidencies ago.
@@MaxusFox23 Yeah I actually forgot to respond to that party. I just used that footage as flavour, the president in SA2/Shadow 05 is far too young to be the same one as 50 years previous.
@@AceCardGaming Well then, my mistake! We are in agreement. It turns out that watching a video three times doesn't make you immune to missing some things.
Many thanks for the well wishes. Best of luck to you too with your upcoming projects.
@@MaxusFox23 Yeah, my assumption was that it was a previous president. I just thought the image of the seemingly golden-hearted President we see in the modern day being obsessed with immortality was such a drastic contrast that I could not help but be amused.
I have never heard of this Perfect Guide though. It sounds like it has some interesting information in it.
For Angel Island's location aspect, I've talked with other folks and we think it may relate to the Archie depiction of the Island constantly on the move, mostly considering how it's a case of in SA1 it perfectly fits into another landmass, but then in the Classic based games it seems to just be over random spots of the ocean, like how Knuckles sees and comes across Trip's island.
Granted they were also talking about how continental shifts should be a big factor but personally I feel there's probably like some element of Chaos Energy manipulation going on there.
As someone who grew up with the Sonic games, I had no idea how much lore existed in these games.
Everything has lore if you dig down far enough.
This story is so tragic, yet beautiful. I’m so glad sonic team is embracing the lore, as a fnaf fan I welcome more insane lore.
At first I only wanted the journal and expected to return the game (especially if it was just Sonic generation with just two or three short Shadow levels I am glad that I was wrong). I have always been interested in Shadow’s “creation” story as well as learning about Gerald and Maria and this journal did not fail to disappoint me. It fascinated me how kind/respectful Gerald was as well as how pressured he was by Gun, the president, and his own family. It is no surprise why he was so desperate for results especially when Maria is so confident in his abilities. He must had felt like a prisoner (lol). He tried so hard to help people only to be pushed by higher powers to make weapons and only for his work to award him with Maria’s death, having a rift in his family, and being put to death by Gun. It makes me feel so much sympathy for him and Maria. Also I am so happy to know that the biolizard was not a lizard but a salamander (a lizard makes a poor specimen to test immortality on and it seemed like a silly mistake to me and the biolizard looks more amphibious to me). It was very nice to read how positive Maria was during her time in Ark and how she had positive relationships with everyone she met. While I didn’t get every reference in the journal it was such an interesting experience and makes me wish that we had more. While I love the idea that the T is Maria’s sister or even Topaz I would not be surprised if it was Tom Wachowski as small nod to the movie franchise. Either way I hope that Maria’s sister makes an appearance in the future.
At least G.U.N made apologies to the professor after Shadow saved the world from Black Doom.
"Just because we killed Gerald doesnt mean we cant miss him"
Gerald is one of the most sympathetic Sonic characters to date.
In the Japanese version, the person “T” is also known as Tori. Probably short for Victoria, who might be Maria’s sister. It’s possible that Eggman gave her the diary for safe-keeping and she turned it over to Abraham.
25:32
This theory makes sense. But I really don’t want it to be the case as I really want the main series to try adopting characters from other continuities.
I don’t care how they are adopted as long as they are as close as possible. Like Topaz being the daughter of Maria’s sister and is also very curious about discovering more of their family’s history on the Ark, is something I’m fine with as another thing to attach to her character for this new version of her.
Excellent video! Always love the extra lore and the deep dive that comes with it!
I remember someone saying that when historians finds a diary or any written personal document, it is the equivalent of finding a treasure trove and you know what? THEY WERE RIGHT! For someone who has an immeasurable desire for knowledge when it comes to the exposition, it was a GOLDMINE. So much so that I refuse to read anything until I’ve acquired every page of that journal. After reading it, I can never again look at Sonic Adventure 2 the same way after watching it from Sonic X.
It was a shame that a lot of information was lost over time but it explained so much of how everything was all led up to the moment where we now stand. Professor Gerald Robotnik was truly a victim of circumstance because of how his talents were used for nefarious purposes. It now reminds me of Singed aka Dr. Reveck from Arcane when he was asked about his invention of Shimmer in the first place. His response was one word and one word only: love. In this case, Maria was his main reason for living when she was born; after the establishment of Space Colony ARK. Despite all the turmoil he was facing, she reminded him of what all of his efforts were for. He went as far as allying himself to a malevolent alien race to provide him the final piece of the puzzle for the creation of the Ultimate Lifeform, which is very close as making a deal with the Devil himself. Hell, if not for her, Shadow the Hedgehog would not be the individual that he is now since she laid the groundwork of his clothing as a means of control for his newfound abilities.
From his entire life as a scientist who, despite his failings, was right about one thing: Maria is their one bright light amongst the darkness of this world. Near the conclusion of his spin-off game from 2005, both the President and Commander Tower recognized their mistake of branding him as a monster when in reality, he was but a man who only wanted his granddaughter, his real legacy, to live. As a result, they decided to commemorate him since he gave Shadow the key to triumph over Black Doom and his forces. On a side note, I personally believed that Tails was the one who acquired the journal with the help of Eggman until everyone hinted that it was most likely Topaz. However, given your reasons as to why it must be Maria’s sister, I’m inclined to agree. Thank you for this one, Ace. Can’t wait to see the movie on opening night.
As much as I as a Sonic x fan would love for Topaz to be canonized (her friendship with Rouge is one of the best parts of the first two seasons), I do hope T is Maria’s sister somehow. It could be cute and sweet to see especially her meeting Shadow. As well as just being a character who could also help further influence Eggman. The fact that Sage now exist and we get stuff with Maria in the next game doesn’t feel like a coincidence. With how Eggman has learned to care about family and even wonders about the feelings of his family to Maria, it could lead to her as another source of family and someone to maybe keep this arc going. Idk how he can still be a villian and I sure as hell don’t wanna see him never be an antagonist again but maybe this could lead to some anti villain qualities to come about? Or maybe we just get motws again instead of him. It’s all so facinating and I can’t wait to see more.
This is a bit of a stretch, but,
what if "T" was the unused concept art woman from Sonic Unleashed?
This might seem like a nonsequitur at first, but her clothing gave me very MegaMan vibes, specifically MegaMan Zero and MegaMan ZX where humans and Reploids (that franchise's advanced "replicated" androids) look almost entirely the same, so she looks like she's meant to blend in with such an environment. And who do we knows has made lifelike androids in the Sonic franchise? Eggman, of course. I'm not saying she herself would be an android, but she looks like she could be distantly related to Eggman through that, with the bonus that her outfit also looks like some sort of high-tech archeologist (think Diggers from the MegaMan Legends series), meaning that she's probably Eggman's other cousin that at first took after her father's passion for archeology and maybe joined GUN afterwards, with the more high-tech likeness of her outfit cementing the MegaMan Legends parallel since she'd be investigating an artificial moon (if you know, you know. XD).
At the risk of sounding fanfic-y, since they were able to reuse the name Abraham Towers from the much more shaky legal grounds that is Archie, they could even *name* her Topaz, to harken back to the beloved Sonic X character yet at the same time "reimagine" her for the game canon. It ties all three missing plot points of the unused Unleashed concept art character that we know they have plans for, Maria's baby sister and generally the archeologically-inclined side of her father's side of the family, AND a Sonic X reference to a beloved character yet reimagined to fit into game canon, wrapping it all up in one nice Christmas present.
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for the analysis!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
I wanted the journal but also I didn’t want to preorder the game twice haha
You get to unlock the journal in game so I guess you still kinda win! 😎
Ok im just throwing thing out here but what if Maria's sister is that Pink Haired girl that was cut from Unleashed. What if theu repurposed the design. If I remember right, you can see a poster of her in the Sonic 3 trailer (or a poster or something)
It’s kinda odd, yet interesting since sonic frontiers told about the chaos emerald are from space but it still confused me in how the first alien species the black arms knows about the emerald’s existence or wield chaos control? Although is it possible they aren’t only two civilizations encounter the emeralds in the void?
Honestly the ancients having history or even just having their space travel be known by the Black Arms makes sense to me.
@AceCardGaming 13:27 Nononononono. Do you see how the E within emerald is capitalized? That means the journal is talking about the master emerald, not a chaos emerald. Notice how the chapter uses the word The and a singular word emerald. That means that he did walk upon Angel Island and knabbed the master emerald.
I was speaking from Gerald’s perspective when he first sees the Emerald on the shrine. For some silly reason I cut the part where I said he wonders if it’s the legendary Master Emerald. Big brain moment I know. 🫠
It still confuses me that they've canonised Maria and Abe being the ONLY children on the ARK. A literal space colony. With many thousands of personnel living there on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Sonic Team saying a colony the size of a city has no families there? No kids? Never made sense to me.
@BritBox777 Nothing says that the scientists and anyone else on the Ark had enough women among them to have loads of children on the Ark. And even then nothing says that the scientists weren't allowed to come and go as they pleased if it didn't conflict with tasks or that all the ones with children/other family would insist on bringing them up on the Ark if they even could spare the room.
@@galten7361 Shadow Gens explicitly says Abe was the "only other kid on the ARK"
@BritBox777 That would back what I said. There is nothing strange about a space colony with not that many aboard and no confirmation there that much of them were women having few to no children in it. Maria's parents didn't support her being there to begin with. The G.U.N. Commander's parents can well have just been the only ones aboard with any children who had to take theirs with them to the Ark if there wasn't anyone else who'd watch over him.
It was fairly early in ARK lifespan though. It was mainly a cite for research. I think eventually they hoped to bring civilians
Well, the ARK was only intended for scientific research originally. No different than living in a research facility at a university. It’s a special privilege to be there. So most of the people there are probably just too focused on their work.
I love this video acecardgaming and gerald robotnik deserves to be so much more.
Thanks Mayra, glad you enjoyed it!
Topaz might be Maria’s younger sister as she has blue eyes like her and could’ve possibly had a light blonde hair when she was younger
This is exactly why I would love if Sega created a second team to strictly make Shadow games or spin off media, while Sonic team focusses primarily on games revolving around Sonic, his friends and Eggman.
Thanks. When I read journal I do not pay attention about this T person. I was hope for Shadow and Maria sister to meet up in future games
Not gonna lie, Gerald’s confession to insanity due to Maria’s death was haunting 😢
Very interesting video!
You know this is making me wonder would Gerald ever have actually found the cure for Maria or was it all unfortunately a hopeless endeavor
Hm, how very interesting and very well done Video, i hope what we get next doesn’t disappoint.
By the way, Maria has a Sister? Did i missed her being mentioned?
Anyway, i wonder if there any gaps that could be filled in someway, at some point?
Maria’s sister is only a recent addition. Maria mentions her in an optional conversation in Sonic X Shadow Generations and then she’s mentioned again in Gerald’s diary. Whether or not they will do anything serious with her or not remains to be seen though!
@@AceCardGaming I see, i wonder who T could be?
I'm starting to wonder if T is Maria's little sister
I thought gun were always the problem in this situation. They caused the death of Maria. They murdered the other scientist just a silence them and all Gerald was trying to do was save his granddaughter. Plus I understand why shadow was enraged Maria was his best friend once he lost her shadow was never the same
22:07 I wholeheartedly disagree, I think that at that point, he thinks the idea of the cannon being used against earth is completely laughable. Which only serves to show how far he will fall.
I think the idea of Gerald not being aware of psychotics and super villains who would happily destroy the world if their demands weren’t met is naive. He’s a smart man and the possibility would very likely have crossed his mind. Just my own view though.
13:40
I still don’t like the idea of only hedgehogs can properly go super. (And I guess Robo Hedgehogs since Neo Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic canonically turned Super before in IDW and 3&K respectively)
Heck, Shadow’s ability to manipulate Chaos Energy comes from Black Doom’s DNA. So you could argue that he’s able to turn super because of his Black Arms DNA and not that he’s a hedgehog.
But whatever, my real problem with just Hedgehogs that can go super, let alone male ones, is that it prevents other characters to have Super forms.
At least they have made Super Knuckles canon again after mentioning it in Sonic Frontiers.
Never thought we would actually get to hear about Gerald Robotnik’s children especially since usually in entertainment when a grandparent and a grandchild are shown the grandparent’s children are never shown. Now I would like if Sega could finally answer as to how Dr Eggman has a descendent known as Eggman Nega since in order for that to be possible Dr Eggman would need to have at least one biological child. My current theory is that Dr Eggman once married a long time ago but abandoned his wife and child/children at some point for whatever reason.
Gerald story is so tragic and yet so interesting
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[ Sun 8:23pm 11/8/2024 ]
Personally Gerald Robotnik journal just plain tragic all he wanted was to make his family whole but instead it drove him apart.
As far as Maria sister’s goes I hope she get introduce in future games may be she’ll be in her late 40’s early 50’s but likely introduce a teenage daughter,I mean shadow deserves a second chance to be happy.
Very funny to find out that the biolizard isn’t actually a lizard. Salamanders are amphibians, not reptiles
Also, the GUN soldier that didn’t wanna quit, actually aimed the gun at Maria, but shadow got in the way I know you said the real enemy was gone, but the real enemy was Abraham towers predecessor because the gun soldiers were just following orders. The predecessor was the one that willingly told him to do that. He’s the actual a whole and actual villain here. Also, Maria still tall shadow, but they do not hurt other people.
Love all these comments speculating and adding meaningful input to the conversation. Allow me to interject with an absolutely USELESS comment in just saying that I can't believe that its 2024 and we're getting meaningful elaboration on Project Shadow lore and everything surrounding it OFFICIALLY. If you told me about this only a few years ago I would have a heart attack on the spot!
Does the journal ever mention why Shadow looks kinda like Super Sonic? Did Gerald really based off his design because he saw the mural in the Hidden Palace Zone with Super Sonic?
It doesn’t mention that specifically. Doesn’t even say for certain why Shadow is a hedgehog but there are also many, many pages missing. Leaves a lot to the imagination!
@Inessus That has already been debunked. Shadow's concept art shows he was not made with Super Sonic in consideration.
@ Concept art has no bearing on the final lore though. I get what you’re saying, initially he wouldn’t have had quills resembling Super Sonic if those designs were used but ultimately he did end up having them.
No. That’s a theory it’s already be debunked as false before. Shadow is not based on the Super Sonic mural
Where was it debunked? I literally have no skin in the game and don’t really care either way. I just like when people say something is debunked, they give an official source.
Who is Maria Robotnik little baby sister it’s been bugging me for a while now
Dr Gerald robotnik probably acknowledge Eggman as his grandson at 50% but focus on finding a cure for maria more
I bet 10 bucks that one of Gerald's kids is named Julian.
10:42 which one is maria dad and Eggman dad and i wonder if Eggman dad knew about maria condition
Given Ian Flynn's almost comical love of references amd reverence for the series, i wouldnt put it past him and the other writers to retcon Maria's younger sister to actually be Topaz. Or at least make "Topaz" her codename within GUN.
where's young ivo/eggman in gerald's journal.
Hey, this is just a question for you, but where do you stand on the whole shadow might be silvers father situation do you say yes or no to that as much as I ship sonic and Amy I also kind of say yes because I think Amy would be silver his mother because his shadow do you can I have good chemistry I mean it’s obvious to him he reminds him of Maria and she’s literally the one who helped him get his memory back in the very first place back in sonic adventure two and whether Sally’s Canon or not in the games and just because you haven’t been shown in the games doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist in the game universe meaning sonic might end up with her instead and I think it’s possible that supermarket has psychic powers from Amy. I mean Amy does have those fortune cards of hers from frontiers. Which would kind of make Amy I guess you could say a psychic in a way so silver, possibly getting those powers from her would make sense, even if she didn’t have those powers herself
why the hell does the back of the journal say "they don't know" on the barcode??
Also, does Geralds journal exist in physical real life form?
Wait, what if Topaz is Maria's sister!!!
If GUN buzz off none of this would of happened
Wouldn’t Maria’s older sister be like a grown adult similar to Topaz?
Maria’s sister is younger than her. Only born after Maria was already on the Ark.
Yeah, but the ARK stuff would be 50 years old by this point. Still adult, possibly around Eggman's age or a little younger/older, depending.
3:50
24:07 Oh my God. It has always been canon that they are wearing shoes and gloves. Just be glad this didn't revive the human, animal, or cartoony round feet debate.
It’s just a joke dude…
there are certain theories i'd like to share with you inregard to doctor Gerald to which i'd like to share with you :
When it comes to the reasoning why GUN attacked the ARK, it probably had some thing to do with them discovering about Gerald's attempt to work with Black Doom and the Black Arms, which is actually treated as a possibility in the Japanese version of Shadow's spin off game, as the message which Charmy activate while Shadow is confronting Black Doom, in that version of the game which is the original, Gerald do NOT EVEN admit about how it is his fault for collaborating with the Black Arms, and instead it's him talking about how likely it is that GUN are gonna discover about that collaboration, WHICH WOULD make them furious, and thus, shutting down the project getting rid of anyone related to in the ARK simply for Gerald's betrayel for making a deal that could doom humanity in 50 years, and that's not even MENTIONING that this version of the game, had that moment between both Abraham Tower and the President praising shadow's resolve to save humanity and promising to follow his exemple, rather than praising Gerald him self, to which surprised me.
and speaking of chaos control being some thing that Lizuka said it's exclusive to Shadow which is not really true, some thing i realized is that given the posssibility that Shadow was based of that mural in hidden palace zone, it could be possible that Gerald found even more details about the prophecy like how that being who will save the master emerald is gonna be a fast paced hedgehog rather than a mere one, and since project Shadow was specifically made as an attempt to make a being capable of controlling chaos energy to see how it's power would help cure diseases, the fact that Shadow is a bio engineered being with great power and capabilities that could evaporate most characters in the Sonic series, and Sonic is STILL equal to him IS KINDA CRAZY, which could explain why super forms are exclusive to certain characters (and this ironically could explain why knuckles being incapable of using super form or chaos energy, given that just because his race guarded the master emerald because of some incident tha wipe out most of them, do not mean they would suddenly be able to control it) other than that, it's crazy that this imply that Sonic, Shadow, and Silver are above most characters in the series.
but what do you think about any of that ? let me know your thoughts rearding those implications and what they mean
@gregtom3272 Do you think Sonic games are about praising militaries and police?
@@galten7361 no, what i said has nothing to do with that, it's just i noticed a detail in the Japanese version of the game to which the dialogue from last cutscene between Abraham Tower and the President in Shadow's spin off, is mostly the President for saving the earth, and deciding to follow his exemple, with NOTHING of mention about Gerald like in the english version when he says , and given that the Japanese one is the ORIGINAL VERSION, it gives the impression that while Shadow (like Maria and the rest of other victims of the ARK) is considered innocent, (which has to do with him savving earth from the Black Arms) Gerald is still considered to be A BAD GUY in the eyes of the current GUN organisation.
@@gregtom3272 G.U.N. are not S.H.I.E.L.D. unlike in the Paramount movies or fanon. They are not portrayed as heroes in the actual games but either antagonists or in the background. Shadow has no issue smashing up their bases when they're just in the way.
So like, what does eggman’s parents think of him? Like, he’s a terrorist now and what not😭
U should collab w/ Game Apologist or chaomix
Actually have done in the past! Both are terrific guys and would be happy to do so again in the future if they’re ever up for it.
The purist of good crushed by lust of greed, ego and power. The humans "GUN" valued their shiny toys and their life's than others they're supposed to protect. Ivo is unfortunately the result, causing all sorts l the harm and pain to others. A monument of all their sins you could say.
Also, is it just me or is the real one to blame for Maria’s death and what happened on the Ike was the gun commander back then because they’re the one who authorized that to happen the morning Sean will be here was pretty much just following orders since all the other soldiers, so if anything, it’s that person‘s fault, not the soldiers that person😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
could you do a video on ian jr
It is possible this T person could be Chris Thorndyke cause from his last name