For Kingdom Hearts if it was just the original story segments, but more fleshed out would any of your issues be fixed? Maybe not because of what I was saying earlier. Kingdom Hearts stories are definitely not for the faint of heart. Definitely one of the hardest stories out there to piece together and master. So it's difficult, but it doesn't immerse you, so you feel stress instead. Context is everything, as you say. It's like the difference between running on a treadmill vs running for your life because a dog is chasing you. It;s the difference between lifting weighting, and swinging a heavy sword to defeat these robotic pirates. I would LOVE getting exercise if it meant I got to kick ass! haha. 

My enjoyment of Kingdom Hearts is not because of emotions. I enjoy how mentally stimulating it is. I don't have a difficult time following its plot and it does immerse me. You can animate, but I can follow kingdom hearts. Different brains, different talents, different skills. You can't change it from that difficult storyline without ruining it for someone else like me, but there are things they could do it make it more user friendly. They could add some more details to make it more immersive, sure. That wouldn't hurt anything. If all you want it to actually have some people in Pete's audience when he's giving a lecture, or people at Cinderalla's ball then sure! Why not? That's just then being super lazy about telling the Disney world's stories because they don't personally give a crap about them, but people like you are a good reason to put effort into them. They could satisfy both casual and hardcore gamers by putting more effort into the disney world plots. There could be multiple reasons for enjoying the game instead of just one. If the disney worlds told interesting stories in their own right and were filled with tons of characters to interact with. You could get immersed and play the game for just that and skip the cutscenes of the main plot. Just to experience the Disney movie first hand in video game format. You get to explore beast's castle first hand. You get to swing on vines like your Tarzan. You get to resolve the war in China through to diplomacy only to discover that Goofy betrayed you! 

So yeah i think that's what they could do to please both fans of Disney and Final Fantasy at the same time. Make and fill the disney worlds with more standard plots and devices, like romance, friendship, and betrayal, whatever you would consider interesting, and then keep the main plot in it's convoluted and stimulating place that it is for us hardcore fans. I don't mean to insult you because you say you want reality and that's the reality of the situation. This game's story challenges you in a way you don't enjoy, you hate figurative speech. You're not the only one though. Plenty of people are into kingdom hearts just because they're disney fans, so they could stand to throw you all a bone and not be so dismissive of the plot of the disney worlds. They could put some time into making those good too instead of just the main plot.
This is what I've concluded. Kingdom Hearts is divided into two fan bases. Casual Disney fans and hardcore final fantasy die hards. It did a good job of delivery on its promise of exploring your favorite Disney worlds first hand in the first game. It had a vine sliding mini game in the Tarzan world, there was a magic carpet ride segment in Aladin, and you flew in peter pan. But after that they got lazy. They stopped putting so much work and effort into fleshing out the disney worlds. They became hallow shells of worlds that got sacrificed to serve the main plot. Sp after the first game they disrepected and turned away the more casual fan base. People like you or Clement. He said that the first Kingdom Hearts game was the only one he liked. For the similiar if not the same reasons as you. The plot got a lot more intricate. What they can do moving forward is go back to a style like the first game. Make the disney worlds interesting again, and MAYbe tone down the difficult of the story a tiiiny bit. Just a little. The first game isn't nearly as hard or complicated as the others.  

Wanted an explanation for light and darkness

On your point about Light and Darkness, the assumption is that most people know right from wrong by nature. Or if not then they've at least learned from others. But also the specifics of morality can be a very sensitive issue, culturally, politically, and personally. So their vague approach is a safe one. An attempt to inspire people towards loving emotions, and good behavior which the writers assume most people are capable of judging correctly. That's an out of the world explanation though. There actually is an explanation of what light and darkness are actually in the universe it's just subtle and you have to those small pieces and connect them together yourself because the story doesn't spell it out right to you. In the Kingdom Hearts universe Light and darkness are literally the energy force that people's emotions (or planet's emotions will get to that) produce. If you feel emotions such as happiness, sorrow for another's pain, or love then your heart emits light energy. If you feel anger, lust, greed, etc. then your heart emits dark energy. Light keeps you normal and healthy while darkness more and more sickly until you turn in a heartless. Or rather your heart becomes so full of darkness that it leaves your body altogether and becomes it's own shadowy being called a "heartless." Your body itself gets left behind and exists merely as an empty shell called a "nobody."

You're right in the sense that whenever Sora or Ansem gives these speeches about light or darkness, it is sort of fourth wall breaking. It can seem like some vague illusion to morality and it is one level, but you can also see how it affects the story in universe. Ansem has a lot of dark energy, it's a tough fight. Shouting out his little speeches gives him motivation and the energy to get through the difficult situation. That's for Kingdom Hearts 1. For Kingdom Hearts 2 things do actually start to get deeper. The debate with Xemnas at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 is Sora and mickey starting to experience some cognitive dissonance. "Why are certain emotions so bad?" That is what Xemnas asks of them and you can tell by Mickey's answer that he doesn't truly know, "It's just so dark and scary...." a cop out answer a superficial rationalization to maintain a belief that he's always assumed for be pure fact. The fact that Riku was able to wield darkness ( again literally the energy emitted when people in this universe feel angry) for good purposes does give them all moment for pause. Maybe what they've assumed was true about light and darkness, positive and negative feelings, right and wrong was not as true as they thought. That they only had a superficial understanding and that there was more to life and decisions than it seemed at first glance. 

In the end, Kingdom Hearts hints that there should be a balance of positive feelings and negative ones. I am pretty sure the plot of the third game will end on this conclusion. If I remember correctly the point of the keyblade war is to bring balance to light and dark energies and reconnect all the worlds back into one pangea. Or Xehanort is trying to destroy all the light energy in the world because so he live in a world with only cold calculating emotions instead of joyful cheerful ones. But Disney owns Star Wars now, so maybe we'll find out that Xehanort is actually darth plageus, master of the emperor, and he's planing on using the dark side to live forever. I think that will be his true motivation in the 3rd game. Maybe in a world with only dark energy he will live forever, but if light energy co-exists he'll eventually die.

Is this line of commentary more relevant to you? I want to be as on point as possible to what you'd like to discuss. If I'm not hitting the topic you want just let me know.

Lost World's similarity to Super Mario Sunshine rather than Galaxy

Despite the obviousness of it's similarities to galaxy. This game is a lot like Sunshine perhaps even more than it is like galaxy. This game has the most moves and ways for Sonic to interact with in environment in the series, the levels are very open so there's a lot of exploration, both involve the player visiting a isolated new place, the biggest gimmick of the games is an addition to the characters permanent moveset (FLUDD/parkour) for the game; The list goes on. Although, this game could use more of Sunshine's spacious level design since

Sonic is finally properly geared up to make exploration and scaling structures styled platforming fun. These levels feel too small with too little scaleable objects and other interact pieces, for all the crazy things Sonic can do. Large non tubular, with more scaling, and less death pits, levels would be much appreciated here.

Five Details Sonic Adventure 3's Story Should Explain

The stories of Sonic games have not been good for a long time. Sonic Adventure 2's story left many fans begging for more. The next game in the saga, Sonic Heroes, left players expecting so much, but gave them so little. Since the stories of Sonic games haven't been the same since the adventure games,  the best place for Sonic Adventure 3's story to occur would be right after Sonic Adventure 2.

Here are five things Sonic Adventure 3's story reboot should explain

1. How Shadow survived



- Unbeknownst to him, Shadow's rings are power inhibitors placed on him by Professor Gerald. When Sonic took one off of Shadow's arm, it released enough power for him to be able to do a limited Chaos control to slow his fall just enough for him to barely survive the crash. The rules of Chaos control would be established as: Shadow and Sonic's ability to use chaos control is directly proportional to the amount of energy they have access to at the moment, including body energy, so they can use chaos powers naturally, but it's very limited without a chaos emerald. Also using them without an emerald takes away energy and tires them out proportionally to how much they use, so they must use these abilities strategically when using them without emeralds. The inhibitors not only hindered Shadow's powers, but also his memories so that he would have problems with his memories.

-alternate explanation: The similarity of him falling to Earth to the time after SA2 to the time before when he was falling in the escape pod, jolts all of his lost memories including his past life before Gerald found him which breaks the mental barrier to his powers that kick in when he is in grave danger.

2. The connection and similarities between Sonic and Shadow and their true origins



-Sonic and Shadow were both born as guardians to protect the planet. Sonic was born as a guardian since Shadow was incapacitated. Chaos from Sonic Adventure one was also one of these guardians. The Chaos Emeralds which were named after Chaos, the last known guardian to use them before Sonic, would have been made for the guardian(s) of Earth to use in times of great danger.

3. How Shadow was actually found by Gerald rather than made



- Shadow was part of a hedgehog tribe near the mystic ruins part of the planet. Gerald was looking for new specimens since the biolizard was needed life support thus was a failing when he comes across an unconscious Shadow and a destroyed landscape behind him recently done by Shadow. Gerald modifies two shock collar, restraining devices, that he was going to use on captured animals, and places them on Shadow's arms. Perhaps Professor Gerald was known for capturing animal specimens for research, and this inspired Eggman to capture animals. This is what he meant when he said his grandfather was his hero that inspired him. Shadow recovered from near death almost overnight showing he has amazing regenerative capabilities. This makes him the perfect specimen to use for research project Shadow, the research project on immorality.

Shadow's tribe got attacked by a band of thieves, and upon seeing many loved ones die his previously dormant guardian powers activate, and since it was too soon, he's goes on a rampage unable to control himself. This rampage created the pumpkin hill/red mountain/sky rail area, or at least happened over there.

4. Why the ARK was attacked and shutdown


-The main villain of the game, Freud Sigmund, was a fellow scientist and colleague of Professor Gerald that worked on the original project Shadow, the biolizard.

-Gerald was appointed head of project Shadow after finding Shadow, and convinces everyone except his rival Sigmund, that a field experiment proved successful creating Shadow.
- Sigmund convinces GUN to attack the ARK and shut it down because of Shadow the Hedgehog.
-After Gerald was executed Sigmund, was appointed to as the head scientist to oversee any further experimentation on Shadow, Sigmund uses this opportunity to absorb Shadow's regenerative energy allowing him to still be alive during Sonic's time. He creates an alternate persona to hide the fact his he could not have lived as long as he does and becomes a high up adviser and leader in GUN. He uses this position to manipulate and influence GUN's actions. He influenced GUN to capture Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2 even though clearly Shadow was behind the events.

5. How Gerald knew about the Chaos Emeralds and made artificial Chaos

It should be explained Professor Gerald and his team discovered the mystic ruins, and there learned of the Chaos Emeralds and Chaos, creating the artificial chaos off of his design.

Why it's important for a story to be able to be taken seriously and When Plotholes Matter in a Story

 I guess I wouldn't mind the alien thing if the game sold me on the idea with good story telling and it wasn't such an absurd and stereotypical alien race who for no good reason wanting to kill all humans because..."humans suck." You're right that people do like to complain about some and insignificant details. So I guess I shouldn't either. Shadow can be part alien if that's all they have, but just tell the story well. Cause the characters to behave properly, develop and continue the plot and characters well. Like Sonic dissected has pointed out in Sonic Dissected 2, people try say whether or not a story was good because of WHAT was in it, but they instead should look HOW the game tells its story.

Now plot-holes; should it matter if there are plot holes if the story is told well? Well, I don't see them as a problem if they don't affect the plot, or have a minor impact on the plot. This is why the plot-holes surround Shadow's creation, Gerald, and Maria don't really lessen how great of a story Sonic Adventure 2 is because the those holes don't alter what would happen in SA2. Plotholes are a big deal in future games like Sonic 06 because they greatly affect what happens in that game.

For example, the plot hole of Shadow, Silver, Sonic, and Mephiles being able to time travel at will heavily affects the plot; thus, it basically ruins the whole story of the game. Very little of what happens in Sonic 06 matters because of the plot-holes. Considering Mephiles is capable of teleporting to anytime and place, he should have been able to very easily teleport to Princess Elise, chop her arm off to get her to cry and release Iblis.

The plotholes and backstory of Black Doom matter too because those things greatly affect the plot of Shadow The Hedgehog, it's also an "out of no where" plot device that has plagued the series ever since Shadow the Hedgehog.

The main problem with the introduction of Doom is his motivations. Why does he need Gerald and Shadow to get the Emeralds for him? This matters because whether or not he actually needs Gerald, greatly alters the plot. Shadow would have never been made if Doom did what he logically should and gathered them on his own. It doesn't get any more plot altering than that. That's where exposition is critical.

At least in Heroes' story, Metal Sonic came from somewhere unlike Doom-through the Deadly Six who come from flipping no where and don't really make sense how they exist in this world. It's just the "monster of the week formula," and such a formula, lessens the Sonic Universe so that the stories it tells CAN'T be taken seriously. It's important for a story to be able to be taken seriously because when a story can't be taken seriously, the plot doesn't matter. When the plot doesn't matter telling a story at all becomes completely pointless

When stories are completely pointless, exposition of the story's lore and character development was pointless. If exposition is pointless by having no pay off, and character development doesn't carry over to the next game, they might as well not even tell a story at all, because it just wastes every's time; making them sit through and consider something that doesn't matter.

so can everyone see now how, the best place to start Sonic Adventure 3 is right after the second since that was the last time the story could be taken seriously?

Sonic Adventure 2 Reboot/ Shadow's Improved Back Story Compiled and Finalized Version

From the beginning of the Earth, and at every individual age of civilized beings, there has been a protector of the Earth who, from birth, was granted the power to protect it and its inhabitants from harm. There usually will only be one, as only one is needed; however, certain circumstances allow for more than one to exist at once, such in the case of Shadow, and Chaos. This character would be born not only with great power, but with a .heroic and noble character. Sonic would be one of those great and noble protectors who inherited this noble character to stop evil from overtaking and destroying the Earth. This would explain why Sonic is always to eager to help those in need and save the day from Doctor Eggman. The Chaos Emeralds, which could be have had the original name of Emeralds of the protector, as well as the master emerald which governs the other seven, could be have been created for use of the protector, as there may be times his powers aren't good enough, and he needs more strength to protect the Earth and save the day. Simple concept, but it would add depth to the Sonic Universe.
Shadow would have originally been the protector of the Earth, as he inherited it's power at birth, but his hedgehog village is attacked by a savage neighboring village who kills everyone, except the village priestess and her husband (Possibly Shadow's parents are the ancestors to Sonic, and are about to kill Shadow when, due to the extreme emotional distress he's undergoing from seeing his so many of his people die and as well as being in danger of dying, his guardian powers that were yet to be unleashed were then released and he not only destroys the all of the attackers, but the whole surrounding area. After rampaging, Shadow collapses and passes out exhausted. The havoc he caused permanently altered the landscape creating the Pumpkin hill type area.
Shadow startled, confused, awakes in the Space Colony ARK. Professor Gerald was on a "research trip" to find another specimen for his ultimate life project for the government, project Shadow but is truly seeking for plants and animals to cure the disease his granddaughter Maria had, found Shadow and nursed him back to health. Shadow, who was near death, recovers almost over night with an accelerated healing ability granted to him by being the guardian of the Earth. This gives Gerald the idea to use Shadow to make a cure for Maria. Gerald moved him to the ark with power inhibitor rings placed on his wrists to restrain his destructive power.  He also invents a teleporter that connects from the A.R.K. to his secret pyramid base, he keeps from the government, in case he needs to quickly escape the A.R.K.
Gerald's granddaughter Maria, who is his favorite because she has always taken an interest in her grandfathers' work and thus, earned her grandfather's trust, was raised on the ark and is a patient there after being Diagnosed with NIDS (Neuro Immune Defiency Syndrome) at a young age. She does not remember what it's like to be on the Earth as implied in SA2. Dr. Robotnik hasn't told Maria about Shadow's rampage nor how potentially dangerous he can be because he secretly hopes her natural warmth and affection can help Shadow to control his powers. Upon seeing him, she gives Shadow his name due to his black furred appearance and inability to remember anything from his past. Maria spend a lot of time together and become very close. As Shadow has not had any problems controlling himself, Gerald plan seems to be working.
Before he found Shadow, Gerald was working with his fellow scientist, Professor Freud Sigmund, head of Project Biolizard, on creating the Ultimate life form. When Gerald found Shadow, he presented him to G.U.N and showed them pictures of the destruction Shadow had caused as well as before and after photos of Shadowing recovering. To prove Shadow is capable even further, he says, " Still not convinced? Let me give you a little demonstration." He then proceeds to remove Shadow's cufflink inhibitors and Shadow, then concentrates and moves his arms outward. As he does this the whole building begins to shake, and the G.U.N commander tells Gerald to stop him. After Shadow stops, G.U.N. appoints Gerald as head of "Project Shadow" and removes funding from Project Biolizard.
When GUN invades the ARK Maria  manages to enter the capsule alongside Shadow. Maria, being an idealistic, tells Shadow how much the Earth and the people on it mean to her, asking him to promise to protect it which of course he does. As Maria and Shadow are hurling towards the earth in the capsule it begins to overheat and malfunction, in this desperation Shadow's powers kick in and he uses a chaos control to teleport them out of the capsule. They are teleported outside of prison Island where they are quickly apprehended by GUN. Shadow is encapsulated, and Maria, while no under arrest, stays at Prison Island to wait for her Grandfather. When he arrives she's allowed one visit with Gerald before he's imprisoned. They get to talk and Gerald secretly hands her the disk journal he made with the true record of what occurred, a video recording for Shadow, and one for her as well. He forbids her to present this to GUN because he doesn't want Sigmund to target her or alter it before his trial. After Maria describes the events to Gerald,  and after seeing she no longer moves with crippled impairment, Gerald deduces that when "the bright flash of light (chaos control)" occured Shadow's cellular regeneration must have spread to her and cured her which it in reality did. By knowing this Gerald is overjoyed and no longer cares what happens to him as Maria's life is saved. The soldiers make her leave and she then goes on to live a long healthy life harboring the secrets of the day. She is still alive when Shadow emerges 50 years later, and meets him again eventually.
After Gerald is taken arrested by GUN Sigmund sneaks onto the ARK to frame Gerald when an investigation is done on the ARK. He programs it to crash in the earth, makes a false recording death threat of revenge by Gerald, altering parts of Gerald's journal, programming the ARK canon to destroy the Earth and look like Gerald face, and reprogramms the biolizard.
Upon investigation of the altered lab on the ARK, GUN finds Gerald guilty and sentences him to death.
Sigmund makes sure to alter Shadow's memories so that he couldn't testify in Geralds defense should they question him. Maria getting shot was an altered memory. Sigmund had been observing Gerald carefully ever since Shadow was brought aboard, so he knew that Shadow's mind was too strong to be directly altered. He witnessed the bond Shadow formed with Maria and knew that the best way to manipulate Shadow's was through his heart rather than his mind, so he used his attachment to Maria to deceive him into believing he wanted revenge.
The events of SA2 occur with the alterations made her being added in, and now after sonic adventure 2. Shadow uses the majority of the energy from the chaos emerald that turn him and sonic super, to teleport to Sonic back onto the Ark, since he knows he has more reasons to live as Shadow believes he's just an experiment and nothing more; however, there was still some energy left, and this allowed him to use chaos control to slow the fall of the space craft. He was in thinking of Maria while doing such.

Sonic Adventure 3 Story

How the Story of Sonic Adventure 3 Play Out
The purpose of this write up is to demonstration  how the story of Sonic Adventure 3 could play out using the improved backstory ideas I came up with. Try to tolerate any flaws in certain sections of it though I'd be okay with someone that is good at story telling and narrative to rewriting this for me as long they stuck with my goal and didn't leave out any important events. The goal of this story is first and foremost to clean of and fix the lore surround Shadow's backstory and character. After that it aims to establish a logically sound backstory for the series as a whole, and to add some sensible rules to the universe and the characters abilities which have gotten out of control since Shadow and Sonic's Chaos emerald abilites have become absurd. It goes along with my other article, "Five Things the Story of Sonic Adventure 3 Should Explain."

The story begins following the events of Sonic Adventure 2 with Sonic on trial to settle his accusations from the last game. He is represented by Tails which would not only be epic, but hilarious to see. Tails would present a good case with pictures of the ARK and everything. The jury seems convinces, but when the opposition makes his case he counters all of Tails arguments and shows the images Tails used were fake, showing that he altered the photos to make it look like their Sonic was this so called "Shadow the Hedgehog", he even goes to accuse him the events on the ark,  from the video of Gerald to the crashing of the ark into the Earth, was all fabricated to make Sonic look like a hero to world and receive glory. Tails attempts to rebuttal, but this argument by this attorney caught him completely off guard. So when a verdict was reached Sonic was found to be guilty by the jury, and sentenced to a life-time sentence in prison.

As Sonic is hand-cuffed protestingly, Tails tells him to play along for now, "We don't want to cause anymore commotion. I'm going to get a hold of the President right away to settle this. Then  tall man in a trench coat an hat from the back of the room exclaims, " Hahahaha, you people make it all too easy!" As he says this he presses a button on a remote control. A robotic claw then crashes through the building grabbing Sonic and pulling him outside.
"Sonic!" Tails exclaims while Sonic is being pulled away, moving towards him with his arm stretched out.

Laughing manically, the man throws off his cloak and hat and is revealed to be none other than Dr. Eggman. His Eggmobile then flies in underneath him as he jumps in the air. He takes off exclaiming, " Later pea brains, it's been fun, but if you'll excuse me, I have a world to rule, MWAHAHAHAHA!" Tails and Knuckles, who had been their in the audience the whole time, rush outside after him to see that he is being carried away by one of Eggman's giant contraptions.
Eggman is flying away in one direction and the robot in another, so Knuckles tells Tails, "Tails, I'll go after Eggman while you see if you can free Sonic.
"Right" Knuckles takes off and as Tails heads toward the robot, he seems something surprisingly odd. He sees what appears to be Shadow running along the tops of the buildings chasing down the robot. "Was that Shadow?! But I thought he died after he and Sonic defeated the Biolizard?! He rubs his eyes and no longer see him. "Was I just imaging things?" He then is seen flying off after the robot, and his level begins.

During Tails' level he has to dodge falling debris from building that the Egg Cyclopes is destroying and using parts of the buildings as platforms. There are Eggman robots throughout the level, and the goal of the level is to catch the Egg Cyclopes. The stomping of the legs of the cyclops can be heard throughout the whole level, and Tails actually catches up to it in a points throughout the level and has to dodge its attacks and fight back; however at the end of the level it ejects from it's legs and lower half, losing most of it's weaponry and flies off with Sonic too fast for tails to keep up.

A Knuckles level would commence here chasing down Eggman and fighting him marking the first boss fight of the game.

The game now shifts back over to Tails who is now in his plane, having called it after the Egg Cyclopes got away. Instead of finding the Cyclopes he finds Sonic in the clutches of the severed arm of the robot that was holding him. Tails lands and hears, "Could you give me a hand here buddy?"
Tails frees him and asks What Happened Sonic, how did you get separated from the Robot and what happened to it?"
"Well, I don't know what is was, but as I was shouting out at the dirty robot to release me, something fast zoomed by and hit the arm, I fell to the ground, and well the rest is history."

Tails mutters to himself, "I wonder if it was him."
"What's that Tails? "You wonder if it was" who?"
"When I was chasing after you I could have sworn I saw Shadow, but I thought I was imagining things. Maybe I wasn't after all."
"Knowing how powerful Shadow was, I wouldn't doubt him finding a way to survive that fall. After all, you guys thought I had died during when Eggman shot me out of that escape pod, but I found a way out."
"But you had the artificial emerald I made, how could he.." Sonic interrupts him.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," As he says this Sonic zooms off running towards the direction the robot went.
"Wait Sonic, Let's take my plane!"

The next scene with show Rouge in her office at GUN . She has been promoted to head of the investigation department by the President for her success on her last case.
"Ms, Rouge, we have some very important reports for you to look at!"
"Ooooh, not now Cheryl, my shifts done, and I was about to head out for some fun!"
"But Ms., havoc by robots has been spreading throughout the city, and video surveillance is showing Dr. Eggman escaping from...
"Eggman! Show me the footage, what do you know, Eggman and...Knuckles!
"So Knuckles is in trouble huh? Oh alright, but he's going to owe me for this."
"Madame, do you want me to deploy our departments troops?" As she asks this a zipper noise is heard,
"No, I can take care of this myself, it looks like its just Eggman after all, and I've taken care of him before." Rouge is shown now wearing a latex suit with a belt with gadgets on it, and the screen fades black.

An after shot of Knuckles and Eggman fighting is shown. Knuckles is panting, and Eggman is shown to have been using an upgraded version of his Eggwalker mech.
"Hahahaha, did you really think you could defeat me Knucklehead?
"Can it Eggman, this isn't over yet," says Knuckles as he get up from being down on one knee and lunges at him." Before he lands a blow, Rouge appears dive kicking Eggman from behind.

"Rouge!" exclaims Knuckles. "What are you doing here?
"Is that anyway to say thank you to some who just saved you?
"I had everything under control. I didn't need your help!"
"Uh huh, oh sure you didn't that's why I saw you on the ground a moment ago. You can repay me by taking me out to dinner later."
"What! I wasn't "on the ground" I was kneeling, and I was preparing for my next attack. It's important to pace yourself during a fight you know, and what makes you think I'd allow myself to be seen eating dinner with you..Hey! Look what you did! You let him get away! As Knuckles and Rouge were talking Eggman managed to slip away unnoticed.
"Leave him. We have more important things to worry about. From what my staff told me, Sonic's been captured by a giant robot destroying the city.
"Yeah, I sent Tails after him. That's right I don't know if Tails can handle that thing on his own. We'd better go..." Rouge interrupts
"If Tails is after him, I'm not worried. That kid can take care of it on his own. He's pretty tough. I have something different in mind for us," says Rouge as she leans in close and winks at a concerned looking Knuckles. The screen fades to black.

(Expect my other back-story posts to tie in from this point forward.)

Now, aboard Rouge's jet Knuckles states in an annoyed tone of voice, " You still haven't told me exactly where we are going."

"It's a place my team found that I wanted to see if you knew anything about." A giant wasteland comes into sight. Mountains shaped shaped like pumpkins with faces carved in them can be seen.

"This is where some of the Master Emerald pieces were lost when I last had to find it, I call it Pumpkin Hill. Why are we here?"

"While I was hacking into the ARK databases, I managed to find this." (pulls an old looking picture printed from the ARK archive of Shadow laying unconscious on the ground)

"Shadow! Was this taken recently?"
"No, look at the date, it was taken over 50 years ago. I guess that means you don't know anything about this?"
"Uh-uh, I'm afraid not."
"Well, we better search the area anyway. I have a hunch we'll find something."
This is where a exploration and puzzle based level would occur. Somehow discovering hints and clues along the way by searching and completing puzzles, and then finding the ruins of a village at the end.
They encounter a trap door in the middle of what looks to have at one time been a shrine. They down inside to discover a room with ancient carvings on the surround stone walls.
"Whoa, it looks like some sort of ancient language," remarks Rouge.
"I..I think I can understand what it's saying."
"What! Really?"
"Yeah, it looks a lot like the writings at the ruin on my island. It says, " Since the beginning of the world, there has always been a protector on the Earth, one being born in each age. This protector is granted special abilities so he can defeat the forces of darkness that time and time again that were to threaten destruction and discord among the world's inhabitants. 7 emerald of power were crafted to grant him the strength when he was in dire need. These gems power could pose a great threat if placed in the wrong hands, so a Master Emerald to cancel out the power of the 7 was formed, and a special guardian of the emeralds was to be born in each age just as the protector. "
"Knuckles..."
"This is taking about Master Emerald and me! and this carving it looks exactly like Chaos!"
"If  Shadow and Professor Gerald Robotnik were here when this photo was taken...Its seems there is a lot more to them than we originally thought."
"We should find Tails and Sonic. They ought to know about this."
Screen cuts to black.

I'm going to get the rest of my idea out there and worry about a detailed write up later.
It was Shadow that saved sonic, he destroys the Eggclopes, then proceeds to chase down Eggman.
Shadow forces Eggman to take him to Maria, as he is convinced Eggman kept her being alive a secret from him, so Shadow would help him conquer the world. Eggman plays dumb at first, but Shadow grabs him by the neck of his shirt, and gets him to admit he's only heard rumors of his cousin being alive. It's believed she lives somewhere by the ancient ruins near the red mountain.

Shadow reveals that as he was hurling towards the Earth after teleporting the ARK with Sonic, his mind recognized the situation and was able to remember what truly happened the day the ARK was invaded. Maria wasn't shot, but had made it into the escape pod with him. The escape pod began to Malfunction and he and Maria where chaos controlled to safety as Shadow's power kicked in, in this moment of crisis. Maria was cured of her disease when by Shadow's regenerative powers, which her transmitted to her via his chaos control.

Shadow and he then proceed to that place. Knuckles and Rouge, who were near by, saw Eggman's ship and followed him. Sonic and Tails received a message from Rouge before she left with Knuckles telling them where they were and so they are their as well. Once there Eggman uses a piece of Maria hair that was inside of his Grandfather's journal to track down Maria with everyone now with him and Shadow. It, in fact, ends of being in a small village of hedgehogs. Maria despite her age, looks young as if she were only 30-40. Shadow says, " Maria..." to which Maria rushes forward and embraces him replying emotionally, "Shadow" She explains that after Shadow was the last time she saw him he was shocked unconscious and being taken away behind close doors. She was then released from GUN, and traveled to the area where Shadow was found as her grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, asked her to go back to where Shadow was found to discover his origins. When at the ruins, she ran into a hedgehog draped in ancient looking garmets, he then invited her back to village where she decided to stay and become a priestess.

A hedgehog recognizes Sonic and its found that the village priest and priestess who watch over the shrine of the guardian, are his parents, and that they had lost him in a storm when he was young; thus, he ended up on the island by Tails and where he befriended and was raised by the woodland creatures becoming their hero. Sonic's parents then take everyone into the Shrine that Knuckles and Rouge stumbled upon earlier and explain to them the legend of the Earth's guardian, with more details that was Knuckles had learned. They state that right after Sonic was born he glowed bright gold for a moment, and that this is a sign of a guardian child. Everyone in Sonic's group is blown away of course, and Maria brings up that Shadow must have been the guardian of the Earth to protect it over 50 years ago, but since he was encapsulated for so long Sonic was born with those powers as well. While all of this is mind blowing news Maria has more important information to share with everyone.

It was revealed to Maria in the recording from her grandfather, that there was another scientist working with him on Project Shadow, the biolizard, named Dr. Freud Sigmund. Sigmund was envious of Gerald discovery of Shadow the Hedgehog and his success with him, so he took his revenge upon Gerald framing him by altering the ARK and spreading rumors of an accident. Gerald made Maria promise to be silent as he knew Sigmund would target her next.

Later it is found out that Sigmund is alive and well, having survived for so long by infusing himself with Shadow's energies. He also reprogrammed Shadow's memories so he would want to take revenge on the Earth to frame Gerald in the event he was awakened. It was described to Sigmund that Shadow escaped via and appeared on Prison Island with Maria by some sort of flash of light. He searched Shadow's memories and DNA to find out about something called, "The Chaos Emeralds" he then deduced that Shadow must have had these so called gems of power with him, and that it must have been by their power he gained the ability to "control" time and space; thus, Sigmund gave this ability the name Chaos control and programmed Shadow to seek out these Chaos Emeralds to perform this move. He also made the design of the ARK canon to be powered by these, but it would short circuit in the event that all seven were inserted as he did not truly intend for the earth to be destroyed, he only intended to thoroughly create the illusion that this was Gerald's goal. Shadow was also programmed to seek for the seven Chaos Emeralds to place in the canon,  when  he was awakened.

From here events can be added in, but ultimately Sonic and the group infiltrate GUN head quarters where Sigmund resides to expose him. Sigmund has been manipulating and controlling the military and most of the government for years pulling the strings like a spider on his web. Sigmund is a brilliant strategist and tactician pushes Sonic and the group to their limits. They split off inside of the massive headquarters which serves as the final level. He character facing their own unique trials and challenges. Shadow manages to reach Sigmund first and defeats his robot combat machine he uses against him. Sonic shows up now and Sigmund mutters
"Curses! I almost had you in court, until Dr. Eggman interfered."
Sonic: "That was you, wasn't it! I thought you looked familiar. You were wearing disguise, but I'd recognize those beady eyes anyway."
"Yes, that's surprisingly astute for someone so dim. Foiled plan or not, it's no matter you're not getting out of here alive!" A tube shoots up from the floor board engulfing Sigmund. The tube fills with bright lights, as the chaos emeralds can be seen inside floating around him. Sigmund had been slowly moving to the spot where the tube came up while he and Sonic were talking.
He then laughs manically transforming into a hulkish and monsterish form, which is a result of absorbing Shadow's powers and the Chaos emerald which he manages to pull strings to nab between the end of SA2 and now.
 Because he absorbs only the negative energy Shadow and Sonic get the positive turning them Super. They defeat him, and he fades into nothingness, having used up the energy keeping him alive. Sonic and Shadow return to normal.

As Eggman was traveling through GUN HQ, he did assist the group in reaching Sigmund, but after he helped he spent his time hacking into the system, so he now has control of the entire system weapons robots and the powerful mech that Sigmund was using except it manages to increase it's powers with technology from the HQs. This could be either a true final level, or just another boss fight with Sonic fight against him, as Shadow is too exhausted and drained of power having fought twice in a row, and being the one to unleash the full extent of his powers to deal the final blow to Sigmund. Sonic prevails but narrowly as he passes out after wards exhausted as well, Tails and Knuckles find him and Rouge grabs Shadow, they all runs out as the head quarters explodes (this part in honor of Michel Bay).

After both recover and awaken, Shadow informs the others he intends to go live with Maria in the village and learn the ways of his people. He offers Sonic to come too as he is part of the same clan, but Sonic declines, stating that he has everything he needs right here, arms stretched out in the direction of Tails Knuckles and Rouge. He then says, "Not to mention Amy'd kill me if she found out I was going to live all the way out there." Everyone laughs at this and he continues, "Besides it'd be too boring for me to stay in one place for so long. I can visit ma and pa anytime I want."

"Suit yourself," replies Shadow.
"Come on guys lets go get some chili dogs!" Sonic
"Knuckles, what's a chili dog? It is some type of frozen pet we have to warm?"
Everyone laughs one last time into the credits and the game ends.

Well, it's finally done. I intended to write it like a novel, but getting my ideas out there is more important. If you'd managed to make it this far and read it let me know what you think, and

Thanks for playing (reading)!
Another day brings another adventure, but for now
Rest easy heroes.

Sonic Story reboot Update #4

-Professor Hannibal is being changed to Proffessor Sigmund
Changes made to story in update #3

After Gerald is taken arrested by GUN Sigmund sneaks onto the ARK to frame Gerald when an investigation is done on the ARK.

Programs it to crash in the earth, makes a false recording death threat of revenge by Gerald, altering parts of Gerald's journal, programming the ARK canon to destroy the Earth and look like Gerald face, reprogramming the biolizard,

Upon investigation of the altered lab on the ARK, GUN finds Gerald guilty and sentences him to death.

Before being executed Gerald manages to record a message for Maria and Shadow which he installs into ao micro mechanical spider which takes it too her.

Sigmund makes sure to alter Shadow's memories so that he couldn't testify in Geralds defense should they question him. Maria getting shot was an altered memory. Sigmund had been observing Gerald carefully ever since Shadow was brought aboard, so he knew that Shadow's mind was too strong to be directly altered. He witnessed the bond Shadow formed with Maria and knew that the best way to manipulate Shadow's was through his heart rather than his mind, so he used his attachment to Maria to deceive him into believing he wanted revenge.

When GUN invaded the ARK Maria actually manages to enter the capsule alongside Shadow. Don't worry Maria and him still has an emotional bonding moment where they are alone talking, and Maria, being an idealistic, tells Shadow how much the Earth and the people on it mean to her, asking him to promise to protect it which of course he does. As Maria ans Shadow are hurling towards the earth in the capsule it begins to overheat and malfunction, in this desperation Shadow's powers kick in and he uses a chaos control to teleport them out of the capsule; however they are sent to different places. Shadow suddenly remember when the day his village was attacked and he went berserk, so he is sent there. Maria was thinking of her grandfather, and is sent to him. They get to talk and Gerald hands her the disk journal he made with the true record of what occurred, a video recording for Shadow, and one for her as well before the guards realize she's there. He forbids her to present this to GUN because he doesn't want Sigmund to target her or alter it before his trial. After Maria describes the events to Gerald,  and after seeing she no longer moves with crippled impairment, Gerald deduces that when "the bright flash of light (chaos control)" occured Shadow's cellular regeneration must have spread to her and cured her which it in reality did. She then goes on to live a long healthy life. She is still alive when Shadow emerges 50 years later, and meets him again eventually. So then Shadow finally gets to visit with Maria now and older, but fit friend. Shadow now finally has the happy ending that he deserves, and a backstory that isn't absurd.

Character description of Sigmund: He is an INTJ. He has an ultimate goal, and carefully executes a plan to achieve. Just like an INTJ he carefully observes and learns first then he makes a plan carefully considering all angles and planning for all contingencies. He plan is  extremely well thought out and thorough. His ultimate goal was to be recognized for his scientific accomplishments just like INTJs will have ultimate goals. While conniving, Sigmund is still highly rational; thus, he doesn't seek for anything outside of his main goal. This is why after his plan succeeds, Gerald is killed, and he once again is reinstated as head scientist for GUN, thus giving him world-wide credibility, he makes no further malicious plans for now. DUN DUN DUH!