Analysis of Sonic Runners' Plot Part 3
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00:00Sonic is thanked for smashing the factories somehow.
00:04Knuckles gets told by an animal that Eggman's planning to steal the Master Emerald.
00:08Why did he take so long after all the time he saw Knuckles there?
00:12Knuckles hid the Emerald in a temple surrounded by lava,
00:16and there's no indication that temple is on Angel Island.
00:19So this tries to explain why Knuckles hangs out with Sonic.
00:22He simply hides the Master Emerald nearby.
00:25So anytime he's portrayed like he would actually be opposed to his island falling,
00:29that's how to character from being outdated, apparently.
00:33He can dig, so it makes sense that he'd just hide it anywhere he could.
00:37Sonic compliments Knuckles for taking out a robot as usual.
00:42Tails says woe about it.
00:44Eggman tries to escape with the Master Emerald, that's a twist.
00:48Knuckles goes after him only to break the Master Emerald by accident,
00:52looking less competent than in SA2 where it was on purpose.
00:56And I really don't see the point of this.
00:59Tails asks what they're gonna do because he's an idiot now.
01:02Sonic says you really think the Master Emerald is that fragile?
01:06Yes. Yes it was.
01:08Sonic somehow finds this suspicious and proves that it's not the real thing.
01:13You could say it's because the writers never played the games,
01:16but so did almost every Sonic writer.
01:18It sure would be dumb if you didn't get called out on how wrong you was.
01:23Omochao says it's super hot when there should be snow here.
01:27Since when does he spend time in a place with snow?
01:30Tails says they should forget about the Master Emerald for now and investigate,
01:34and somehow Knuckles doesn't tell him off and take off to look for it himself.
01:39The story gets repetitive by having them find two unfrozen springs,
01:44making two cutscenes with the same plot events with different dialogue.
01:48Eggman says he found a lot of energy here to exploit that he didn't expect.
01:53Yeah, Sonic should've known Eggman was behind this.
01:56Tails didn't expect this either.
01:59It doesn't get explained how Eggman found energy without a solid energy source,
02:04and his factory gets destroyed.
02:06Omochao thanks them.
02:09So apparently there are places where there's just energy floating around.
02:13It's so lazy a plot point that Knuckles has to search for the Master Emerald.
02:17It was already done when it was whole.
02:20At least it's new days with Sonic and Tails this time and they want to help.
02:27They get told one of the animals saw a shooting star,
02:30so the heroes assume it was the Master Emerald shard, which is mislabeled as Fragment.
02:35Sonic thanks the rabbit, which looks just like all the other rabbits,
02:39so I guess the animals all have very subtle facial differences
02:43that the heroes can attack from experience so they know which is which.
02:47An animal gives them info about where it is and gets thanked.
02:50If there's no time to waste, I have to assume he's running while saying that for this to make sense.
02:55They see Metal Sonic carrying a piece of the Master Emerald,
02:58so at least that's new,
03:00which is the only reason it's justified that it was shattered.
03:04I like that Knuckles calls the super robots his favorite because he's enjoying helping out.
03:09The story wastes time showing Metal Sonic go to Eggman with the shard,
03:13which is a smaller word than Fragment.
03:16And of course he gets it back.
03:18There's a tree an animal can't cut down, so the heroes get asked to take care of it.
03:23I assume it's a dead tree, or else they'd be out of character for Gladly Green.
03:28Even the programmer of Sonic 1, Yuji Naka, said Eggman was meant to be an anti-environment,
03:34so the heroes are supposed to be the opposite.
03:36Tails gets complimented and says whoa because Go-Figure's super strong friend uprooted a tree.
03:43They find a treasure map.
03:46Like our charity did.
03:48Logically, why would anyone make a treasure map?
03:50If someone did, he would keep it with his will.
03:53The treasure was collected by a dragon.
03:56Tails compliments Knuckles on digging and getting the treasure that Eggman thanks him for finding for him.
04:02How did Eggman know to look for it?
04:05Knuckles has eggs instead of apples, and somehow Eggman doesn't correct him to be a dick.
04:10Tails finds a convenient master animal detector of Eggman's,
04:14which has things make more sense, but also doesn't,
04:17because why didn't he do this plot way earlier?
04:20Now there's especially no reason he didn't look for the master animal in Sonic Riders.
04:26And Sonic Zero Gravity.
04:28And Free Riders. Why did he stick around in the tournament at all?
04:32The detector can even tell them exactly how many shards are left to look for.
04:37Tails tells Sonic he made a good plan.
04:40It should be Tails making the plan.
04:42Sonic thanks him and says they owe him one for effortlessly beating a robot.
04:46And people say the reboot had characters too friendly with each other to be realistic.
04:51I guess they never saw this plot,
04:53because I don't remember the characters in the reboot being nice to each other for unjustified reasons.
04:59Tails says it was needed of Knuckles to do something not remotely impressive for his standards,
05:04and they find Orbot who's scared enough by just seeing them that he says he's looking for the radar.
05:10Why does he even bother asking Sonic if he saw it anywhere?
05:13Tails mercifully lies to him to make him go away,
05:16and even though he's clearly talking nervously to him,
05:19Orbot believes him and leaves,
05:21and somehow Tails feels bad about lying to one of Eggman's main servants.
05:26Sonic's impressed by Knuckles beating one badnik and has fun beating another one.
05:31Knuckles finds a shard and gets told great work by Sonic for something he did without even trying,
05:37and the heroes get told that Eggman was following them all along because he knew they'd find his radar for him.
05:43A genius moment of his that gets undermined by him being sent away again.
05:48Why doesn't Sonic just instantly ask the animals where the next shard was,
05:52instead of saying there's something he needs to ask them?
05:55It's very normal for him to ask them stuff, after all.
05:58Would he mean the fate of the world might depend on the Emerald?
06:02That hasn't been the case since SA2, which was a very special circumstance.
06:08An animal has a shard, and wanted to give it to his mom for a present.
06:13And Knuckles says he wants to find him a replacement gift.
06:16Wow, that's surprisingly nice for him.
06:20Because a worse friend of Knuckles would just immediately angrily take it from him,
06:25and not even think about this.
06:27Instead, he has death.
06:29Tails says that's a great idea, and Omochao thanks them for their generosity.
06:34Knuckles says he can't see anything nearby that'd make a good gift.
06:39Sonic picks up a chili dog, so they really are near civilization.
06:43Not a mere forest that of course wouldn't have good gifts.
06:47Omochao says he doubts that the pig would like a chili dog,
06:51even though it should be obvious to everyone that the chili dogs are made from non-sentient pigs,
06:56so pig people wouldn't mind them.
06:59It would be illegal to make males sentient pigs.
07:03I guess the writer wrote that for that specific joke,
07:06but it was the case in-universe because not everyone likes chili dogs.
07:10I mean, Sonic Underground had a sentient pig serving a chili dog,
07:14and he had no problem with it.
07:17Why don't they just look in a store?
07:19I guess they want to be cheap.
07:21So they're nice, but not too nice.
07:24They want to find a great gift, but not if it costs them anything.
07:28That's pretty weird for people who are unusually friendly to each other in this game.
07:33He was clearly looking for a great gift on the level of a jewel.
07:36Why does he think random food would be a good sub by his standards?
07:41Eggman shows up, and someone says,
07:43Damn you, Eggman.
07:44Damn it, instead of swear outside North America.
07:47I don't remember hearing anyone bitching about this,
07:49so apparently barely anyone who's constantly talking about Sonic Online
07:53saw the cutscenes for this,
07:55because it's a mobile game,
07:57so hardcore gamers snubbed it.
07:59Logically, why doesn't he say this more often?
08:02There were other points where he could've.
08:05I say this because he's okay with saying it in the first place.
08:08Sonic reassures his friends not to worry.
08:12Tails is glad someone didn't get hurt.
08:15And Eggman gets told to hand over the pig he apparently kidnapped
08:19in a blinker-you'll-miss-it moment.
08:21Omnichannel asks if he's okay,
08:23and he thanks Sonic for breaking his fall,
08:25but Eggman escaped with the shard for padding.
08:28Why is Knuckles surprised by this when he can sense the shard?
08:31So he'd know that it was going away.
08:34The heroes give the pig his gift, and they get thanked.
08:37Nothing interesting happens for several scenes after this.
08:41They just do what they always do and get the shard from Eggman.
08:45It's weird that Sonic says Eggman's bleeding.
08:48If Eggman was smart, he'd have kept the decoy shard with him just in case.
08:53Why does Knuckles think he has to take all the shards to the temple
08:57before he can put them back together?
08:59Why would he plan on hiding the emerald in the same place Eggman found it
09:03last time?
09:05I guess he plans when I'm thinking he's smarter than he is.
09:08But Eggman almost always underestimates people.
09:11Sonic wastes his time telling his friends to stay focused.
09:15At least he cares, but was there any doubt?
09:18It's boring again, and they find Eggman waiting for them at the temple,
09:21and the Master Emerald gets completed.
09:24It's so nice of Tails to say you did it when all of them helped.
09:28Tails, the genius, struggles to think of how to keep the emerald safe.
09:34So Knuckles decides to stay here guarding it because the obvious ideas aren't coming.
09:40Omochao has to be the one to come up with an idea. How insulting.
09:44He says the animals could guard the Master Emerald for Knuckles.
09:47And Knuckles is just gonna trust some random strangers to not steal the emerald
09:52and actually succeed in fending off people for it.
09:55Tails naturally asks if that would really work.
09:59It should be Knuckles saying this.
10:02This is such a simple solution it's insulting to us.
10:05He says as long as they were well drilled.
10:08We're not gonna be told they have weapons.
10:11No amount of drilling would help if they don't have special powers.
10:15Really, Knuckles isn't objecting to the most weak and pathetic people
10:20in the Sonic series guarding the Master Emerald for him?
10:22If they guarded it when it was in the temple, it would've been stolen anyways.
10:27They turn to the Chaotix first.
10:30Omochao thanks Tails and explained his plan to them.
10:33They all just trust him that they're all set if Eggman shows up again.
10:37Eggman instantly says he's back to take it
10:40and Sonic uncharacteristically admits he's not as dumb as he seems.
10:44Once again, Eggman gets attacked by animals.
10:48And I say this right after I noted how pathetic they look.
10:51They're usually the Princess Peach of the Sonic series.
10:54This is the game where Eggman's the worst.
10:58Tails thanks them.
11:00And Omochao expects to have them guard the Master Emerald from now on.
11:04This really makes me want to know if Sega thinks this is canon.
11:08I doubt it.
11:10They didn't tell Flynn to have these guys guarding it in the Forces prequel comic with Knuckles.
11:14Which wouldn't even need to exist if this game was put into count.
11:19Knuckles says thanks again to someone who failed to know where Eggman was.
11:23I'm not sure I'd expect Knuckles to be that polite with no social experience.
11:28Tails thanks someone for telling him something like everyone else did.
11:32Finally, someone says they've seen Eggman.
11:35Who would call their kid Flicky if he is one?
11:39The risk-taking Flicky had snuck after Eggman,
11:42confidently assuming he wouldn't be caught.
11:45And Sonic thanks someone on the way to him when he didn't have info for him anyways.
11:50Tails thanks someone for saying he knows someone who can tell him where Flicky went.
11:54What a boring part of the story.
11:57It's not like it's someone we actually care about who disappeared.
12:01Flicky was so lucky that it took until Sonic was just about to go to Eggman Fragment to spot him.
12:07It turns out Eggman's been collecting strange jewels which everyone assumes are Chaos Emeralds.
12:13You'd think that person would recognize Chaos Emeralds.
12:16Even the news reporter in SC2 talked about one when it was on camera.
12:21Nothing interesting happens for a while.
12:24Tails of course hacks to find out something from Eggman's databanks.
12:29He finds out Eggman wants the Emeralds to power a giant brainwashing cannon.
12:33Why didn't he try that with Emeralds a long time ago?
12:37He's not reacting as if he's done it before.
12:39This is a ripoff of his plan in Colors.
12:42And we had the impression that he needed wisp energy to power the brainwashing cannon.
12:47I can at least commend the game on having an epic menacing plan for Eggman.
12:51But I'd expect this to be revealed a lot later.
12:54Because this kind of thing belongs to as the last plan Eggman would do for the game.
12:59There's over an hour's worth of cutscenes left.
13:03Cubot reveals that he and Orbot have Emeralds radars and Cubot broke his somehow.
13:10I'd expect a robot to have a perfect grip.
13:13And why would a hovering robot trip and fall?
13:17Somehow Cubot trusts Tails to give him back the broken radar after he fixes it.
13:22You'd think Team Sonic would already have an Emerald detector by now.
13:26Since it was invented for Eggman's side in SC2.
13:29But no.
13:30Tails tells his friends to be careful because they've been dealing with the same pathetic robots as always.
13:37Eggman calls Sonic clever uncharacteristically for spotting him at Tails' lab.
13:43Sonic just happened to spot him.
13:45He's not that clever.
13:48Tails apologizes for the wait and says he fixed it.
13:51Sonic says they should start with the closest Emerald.
13:54If there was a clearly closest one.
13:56Why did Knuckles the experienced hunter care about which order they got them in?
14:01He would have gotten used to getting the closest thing first.
14:04Because it's faster.
14:06Sonic wonders how much further it is to the next Emerald because Sonic's starting to feel the pace.
14:12And Sonic says that slow and steady is gonna win the race.
14:17Well if he ran with the radar at Sonic's speed, he'd go so far ahead that it'd stop detecting Emeralds.
14:23Realistically, they all got tired and took a nap.
14:27Sonic points out that Tails isn't tired anymore.
14:30And Eggman says the energy collector they broke isn't the only one he has so he's that smart at least.
14:36The heroes find out in another twist that Eggman drained an Emerald completely.
14:42But we all know it can be restored by cheering anyways.
14:45Eventually, Cubot reveals he told Eggman he gave Tails the radar.
14:50And Tails wisely lies to him that he couldn't fix it.
14:53And Tails is smart enough not to get openly mad when told he's not a genius.
14:58Sonic agrees to do Cubot a favor.
15:01And plans to head for another one of the energy collectors with him being given a ride by Knuckles.
15:06Who's not okay with it but Tails pressures them into agreeing because somehow they owe the evil robot of Eggman.
15:12Who at least warns the heroes of robots coming for them.
15:16Sonic thanks them for the inexplicable betrayal of Eggman.
15:19Knuckles fights a robot and says Cubots are not so bad to have around after all.
15:24I guess because he warned him of a robot they should have heard coming unless it was silent.
15:29Sonic says sorry to Cubot before fighting Eggman again.
15:32And someone throws Cubot at him.
15:35Them finding Emeralds is so uninteresting it's not worth pointing out seven times.
15:40Conveniently, Tails worries that they're gonna be ambushed when he's not normally psychic.
15:46He's glad Cubot taught them how to spot robots.
15:49They shouldn't have needed him to be taught that with all their experience.
15:53Warbot knew he'd never be able to ambush them with robots successfully and flees.
15:58Tails says his team's doing good and compliments Knuckles on his usual behavior twice.
16:04Sonic compliments his friends at the energy collector.
16:08Them sure is guarded.
16:10How's Tails so genre-blind?
16:12Eggman goes up to them panting which makes no sense because they fight him in the Eggmobile.
16:18Sonic's impressed Eggman caught up with them even though he does that all the time.
16:23And they fought his Eggmobile.
16:26And this definitely isn't canon because they would have remembered him outrunning him in Sonic 1.
16:31A wisp gives him a gift and Sonic thanks him and Tails thanks another wisp for a gift.
16:36And Tails compliments Sonic.
16:38Why doesn't Tails instantly recognize Metal Sonic?
16:42Why does he just say there's someone over there?
16:44You think he'd be able to see the metal texture on him?
16:48Metal steals Knuckles' Emerald and somehow Tails wonders what they're gonna do.
16:53For no reason Sonic asks his friends if they're okay.
16:56And Metal steals Tails' Emerald so Sonic asks him if he's okay.
17:01Tails is fine making Metal Sonic look surprisingly pathetic.
17:05How is nobody injured because of him?
17:08An Emerald stolen from Sonic who blames himself for getting distracted.
17:12Maturely.
17:13And Tails says sorry and thinks it was all his fault.
17:16It would have made actual sense if Metal Sonic had taken all the Emeralds in SA1.
17:21As soon as they see Eggman the tension's over but surprisingly Eggman got the Emeralds back and left.
17:27Tails doesn't know what they're gonna do.
17:30And Sonic smashes the energy collector.
17:33They plan on looking for the Emeralds Metal Sonic doesn't have and nothing interesting happens on the way.
17:39Tails thanks Knuckles who wonders why Cubot's feisty now and he's told that Eggman's been so obsessed with Metal Sonic he forgot about him.
17:46So he somehow thinks he could beat Sonic to get Eggman to care about him.
17:51Sonic says he'll do him a favor right in front of him and he tells him he won't be able to get past him.
17:56So Cubot doesn't realize he's just doing him a favor.
18:00And somehow expects him to wait right here while he leaves to tell Eggman about this.
18:05Even Grounder wasn't this dumb.
18:08Sonic smartly tells Tails to keep it a secret what a master of deception he is.
18:11And without Metal Sonic there Eggman's offended that Sonic thinks he'd need Metal Sonic's help because he taunted him about it.
18:18Tails thanks Sonic for saving him.
18:21Knuckles tells Sonic to distract one of the super robots for him so he could ambush one.
18:26And Tails praises Knuckles for his quick thinking.
18:30Orbot's actually surprised the heroes made it here.
18:33Which is completely out of character because he's known about how competent they were the whole series.
18:41And Orbot's been controlling the robots because they somehow needed controlling.
18:45And he also laid down traps I didn't see.
18:48When Orbot feels bad about his skills Sonic and Tails somehow decide to flatter him.
18:53And he wisely runs away.
18:55Why do Tails think things got pretty hairy when it's nothing they haven't effortlessly dealt with a ton of times before?
19:01Sonic reassures Tails.
19:03And Eggman sobs when he's defeated which isn't like him.
19:07He didn't even act like that in the final boss of Unleashed when he was completely fed up with Sonic.
19:14At least he said it do like in SA1.
19:17The story's uninteresting and predictable after this.
19:20Tails compliments Knuckles and Sonic thinks they should think about their strategy before they get to their destination.
19:27Which should really be Tails' line or what's the point of him being here?
19:31So Sonic and not Tails thinks if they make Metal Sonic run around for as long as possible he could slow down from being overheated.
19:40And Tails somehow doubts the plan even though it's exactly what Metal Sonic did in the race in Sonic CD.
19:46Sonic says if they come after one of them the others will draw him off.
19:51It's not like Sonic should never have a plan but it's insulting to Tails if Tails almost never makes the plans.
19:58Sonic should only make the plans if Tails isn't there.
20:02Tails should make most of them so when Sonic does it's actually special.
20:06Tails thanks Knuckles for the help and the plan works.
20:10Eggman already has all the energy he needs for the brainwashing cannon.
20:14And Tails wonders if Sonic heard what he said for no reason and Sonic lampshades this.
20:20Knuckles somehow asks how the drained emeralds could be useful for anything when he was there in SA1 when Cheering restored their power.
20:28To be fair Chaos only drained the negative energy of the emeralds.
20:32And there's no proof that illogically Eggman only drained the negative energy.
20:37Tails didn't say that this time.
20:40Tails knows where to go next, praises Sonic and Sonic praises Knuckles.
20:45Nothing interesting happens during this part of the story.
20:48It was a lot more interesting when they were stuck with the animals.
20:52There was actual plot variety compared to now.
20:56Sonic cares enough to ask his friends if they're ready and they wonder why a robot's not doing anything near them.
21:02Sonic calls Cubot old pals so he says hi guys and calls Eggman a tyrant for getting mad at him when he last talked to him.
21:10Tails didn't have to tell him what they did after it.
21:13Cubot says he's on strike.
21:15Why does he think Eggman wouldn't scrap him? Why did he take so long to do this?
21:20Sonic thanks them for ripping off Sonic Boom and he's worried about Orbot planning to stop him later.
21:26Knuckles says he loves a challenge and Sonic says that's the spirit and tells his friends to keep their eyes peeled for robots.
21:34Tails states the obvious that the robots around them call for some teamwork.
21:38Like Heroes never happened and they aren't used to this.
21:42And Sonic praised them and his friends afterwards.
21:45Tails is impressed by Knuckles who tells Orbot his traps were impressive.
21:50And Tails says Cubot warned them about them.
21:53Sonic says Cubot wishes them luck.
21:56Tails wishes Sonic good luck for his multiple races with Metal Sonic because they keep doing a tie.
22:02Eventually Sonic actually loses. It doesn't matter because they just do another race.
22:07Sonic thinks it was fun and wants to do it again sometimes. That's sweet.
22:11This is what they'd do together if they were friends.
22:14I can't believe this happened in an official game.
22:17Because normally Metal Sonic just blindly does what Eggman says.
22:22And I wouldn't expect it to be among Eggman's orders to just do multiple races with him.
22:29Tails praises Knuckles and Knuckles looks forward to tearing the base apart.
22:34Tails somehow thinks the emeralds would be able to live in peace when they'd only happen to be killed Eggman.
22:40So Sonic beats Eggman as usual. Eggman presses a button to activate the brainwashing laser.
22:45Why didn't he do it before the fight?
22:47Why did he save it as a last resort? He's not merciful.
22:51Sonic shouts and Knuckles gets protective of him and all of the emeralds get their power back
22:56even though nobody felt anything but negativity around it.
22:59Tails instantly figures out the emeralds must be absorbing the brainwashing laser energy.
23:04So Sonic goes Super Sonic.
23:07That was easy. They should have done some cheering again.
23:11Sonic tells Tails not to worry as Eggman got away.
23:15I wouldn't picture Knuckles to say munchies.
23:19He's just going back to Tails' house to eat but we never find out what.
23:24This game's like a day in the life of Sonic.
23:28But the novelty quickly wears out with the lazy repetitive storytelling
23:32that actually gets worse when they leave the animals behind.
23:36There's only one new kind of robot they deal with
23:39and at the end nearly all they do is fight robots that die in one hit.
23:44There's a reason there aren't any TV shows exactly like the games.
23:48It gets boring really quickly when it keeps having plots where Eggman's capturing animals
23:53or Sonic's fighting robots
23:56to the point where I'm thankful when the story is about something other than that.
24:00It's a format that works in quick bursts
24:03which is how you'd be experiencing the story if you were playing the game.
24:07But you'd be drained if you watched even a third of the cutscenes all in a row
24:11and wouldn't want to bother seeing all of it at once.
24:14I will say though that this plot has a lot of effort put into it
24:18because so many different things happen in it.
24:21I won't summarize everything that happens in the plot because it'd take forever.
24:25It's only a good story compared to bad stories.
24:29Even if it was weird that the characters complimented each other
24:32for stuff that isn't impressive by their standards at all,
24:35it still adds up to give a good feeling to the mood of the plot
24:38where they're a bunch of good friends getting along the entire adventure
24:42which seems weird for Knuckles and Sonic.
24:45In the games, the closest they get to a rivalry is that Sonic hated him
24:49just for being easily tricked and that was long ago.
24:53Knuckles isn't telling Sonic he'd do things better than him either.
24:57It's less Flynn Sonic's dynamic and more Sonic Heroes' dynamic.
25:03And I have no idea who wrote this plot.
25:06I mean, the best I can do is assume Iizuka wrote it because he's the producer
25:12but the wiki doesn't actually list who wrote it.