Analysis of Sonic and the Black Knight's Plot Part 2
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😹
AmusantTranscription
00:00Since when is Sonic scared of fighting Knuckles?
00:03It's because he's in a hurry to do something else, but still.
00:08It's good that he doesn't actually want him to fight him.
00:12Also, why can't he just run away from him?
00:14I guess his pride won't let him.
00:17It's not very nice of him, though. He'd rather beat someone up who looks like his friend
00:22than run away from him because his ego's at stake.
00:26So he cares more about his ego than his own friend's safety?
00:30Knuckles disbelieves him.
00:33And Sonic makes it clear that Knuckles is known for being cynical and mistrusting of him.
00:38Something that's the opposite of gullible and trusting.
00:41After being beaten by Sonic, Knuckles tries to commit suicide with his sword.
00:46This is too dark. Knights don't commit seppuku. That's a samurai thing.
00:52A proper knight would just go to help Sonic after being beaten by him.
00:57And the fact that you could remove this from the plot entirely and not notice a thing,
01:02it's proof that it's nothing but pointless shock value.
01:06Rather than justifying the dark content by enhancing the story and giving it a point.
01:12Sonic at least helps him out by knocking the sword away from him and saying there's more to being a knight than serving a king.
01:18But he still does this in the most dickish way possible.
01:21Even though it can be relatable to respond to a stressful situation by being annoyed to mask the pity.
01:28He doesn't act like he cares, but that doesn't mean he doesn't.
01:32If he didn't care, he wouldn't have tried to stop him.
01:35If Tails tried to do this, I can guarantee you he'd be more gentle about this.
01:40Not to mention Knuckles is dual wielding.
01:43And Sonic only takes one wing, leaving the other one behind.
01:47That's amazingly irresponsible of him.
01:50He's very lucky he listened to his advice.
01:53And again, none of this would have happened if he had just run away from Knuckles.
01:58The whole reason he decided to do a favor for the kid is because he cared more about helping people and heroism than the test.
02:06That would apply to running away from a fight too.
02:09Amy apologizes to Sonic happily for tricking him,
02:12turning from the kid that talks to him to herself again.
02:16And again, the kid had Amy's voice, so he should have known this all along.
02:20That would have made him look smarter.
02:22Sonic finds out that he has to defeat the Knights.
02:25Then he should have had to fight Knuckles after this point.
02:29That would have made more sense.
02:32So he has to defeat the Knights to get three swords to dispel the immortality on King Arthur.
02:39So it's another MacGuffin's plot.
02:41The swords are so forgettable, if you haven't played the game, it's very easy to forget it even is a MacGuffin's plot.
02:48I guess it's because the swords look realistic.
02:52Why did they let a girl become a Knight in this medieval age?
02:55It sure is a parallel universe, alright.
02:58I don't like how Sonic says this to the sword with flirtatious looking eyes.
03:03I prefer him hating the sword because he's so annoying.
03:06It's like it's only written to show the new character.
03:09The games do this all the time, like with Chip.
03:13We're not gonna like the new character just because Sonic likes him.
03:17I love Blaze's Spanish guitar theme in this game.
03:20This should always be her theme.
03:22It comes out of complete nowhere though, especially considering the jewel on her forehead.
03:27Blaze sounds unsure of herself, which I like because it makes her character more deep and sympathetic.
03:35Blaze backs away from Sonic and almost falls into the lava, but Sonic jumps down and grabs her hand to save her.
03:42Using the sword to dig into the wall to stop their fall.
03:46I love that the game uses the sword for something other than what it's typically used for.
03:51And yeah, this is another good moment for his character.
03:54He goes out of his way to save her, even though she was his enemy.
03:59Even though he doesn't have proof that she's not evil.
04:02Maybe it's because she looks like Blaze.
04:06And there's some Sonic and Blaze shipping out of nowhere.
04:09Sonic asks if he's jealous, teasingly.
04:12The sword finally calls him sir because he saved Blaze's life instead of killing her.
04:17Even though he chastised him earlier for not finishing a night off.
04:21At least he finally shows him some respect.
04:24Good, Merlina shows up.
04:26She says the king's on the Avalon Island.
04:29She compliments Sonic.
04:31It's not like him to be humble, but it's also a lot more sympathetic.
04:36I can only think of one time in Sonic and the Secret Rings when he acted humbly in response to compliments.
04:42Why is it that he's smug about himself all the time in the storybook games and stuff?
04:47But he acts humbly in response to compliments.
04:51Sonic challenges King Arthur to another fight.
04:54The king says his impersonation of a knight has improved somewhat.
04:58That actually got a chuckle out of me.
05:00It goes to show you how witty the exact dialogue was.
05:03Because normally I just hate it.
05:05Oh great, Sonic called the sword old pal.
05:09This feels so forced considering what a dick the sword was to him the whole game.
05:14Shadow being nice to Sonic one time at the end of SE2 wasn't enough for him to be nice to him in Sonic Heroes.
05:21This is supposed to be the more dangerous version of the fight.
05:25And it's the one where he doesn't stop to duel with him.
05:28It doesn't make any sense that he spends the whole time running away when he accepted his fight.
05:34And he acted confident from the start.
05:37And yet he spends the whole time running away from him like he's more scared of him than ever.
05:42That sword of the king looks way too big to fit in that scabbard.
05:46Sonic uses the three sacred swords from the king to undo his immortality.
05:51And then Sonic attacks him with a sword.
05:54And he's happy about it.
05:57Is he finally wisening up?
05:59The fact that he never explained why he was okay with killing King Arthur made this feel really uncharacteristic of Sonic.
06:07Because the immediate question you ask is why he didn't kill Eggman.
06:11He does this because he wants to go home.
06:14It's just that he doesn't act like he's only doing this so he can go home.
06:19Because he's not unhappy about it.
06:22I think the reason he's okay with being seen as the bad guy is because it's a parallel universe without his friends and fans in it.
06:30Of course he doesn't care whether he's seen as the hero or the villain.
06:33Have any other game make that point and do a better job.
06:38It would be a lot more powerful and poignant if he risked his reputation as the hero on his own planet.
06:45The cutscene ends so suddenly after this.
06:48Making it feel very anticlimactic and an obvious fake ending.
06:52I'm not sure why they play the credits here when it's not actually the end of the game.
06:56That fooled a lot of reviewers into thinking the game ended.
06:59So after Sonic beats King Arthur, his body magically vanishes.
07:04And Merlina says that the king was an illusion her grandfather conjured up.
07:09This creates a plot hole.
07:11You'd think everybody would know that he was an illusion from the start.
07:15Because monarchies are hereditary.
07:18Wouldn't everyone question a king showing up out of complete nowhere?
07:22They would have known that the previous king died without an heir.
07:26They would have known about this kid walking around being the prince.
07:30So if there was never any King Arthur, how did he get accepted as the king?
07:34Why did her grandfather even cause an illusion in the first place?
07:39I guess he wanted to do a favor to the royalty because they didn't produce an heir.
07:44He didn't want a civil war to happen.
07:46Merlina says she'll make the kingdom last forever.
07:49And stabs the sword into the ground epically to create an explosion of energy as awesome music plays.
07:56I really hate how Merlina's being demonized here.
07:59Getting an evil blue haired redesign for literally no reason.
08:03She thinks she's in the right, so why would she change her appearance instead of thinking she looks good enough as she is?
08:09You'd think all she would do is give herself a queen's tiara.
08:13I remember seeing this cutscene for the first time and wondering why there was frantic evil music playing because it seemed so dissonant.
08:20It didn't look like she was doing anything wrong by saying,
08:23I will fix my grandfather's greatest mistake.
08:26Although I'm not sure what that mistake was.
08:29He didn't make a mistake by creating the illusion.
08:33The kingdom needed stability.
08:35If he didn't make the illusion, the kingdom would have collapsed into civil war.
08:40My point is, I hate this whole Merlina's portrayed as evil plot twist.
08:44Because it doesn't do a thing to explain why making the kingdom eternal is a bad thing.
08:49Sonic treats her like she's pure evil with no point or good intentions.
08:53And most frustratingly enough, it's for the wrong reasons.
08:57It's obvious that it's a bad thing for the kingdom to stagnate and never progress.
09:02But not only did she not say that she wouldn't let technology progress in the kingdom.
09:07But why is it bad for it to stay around, never ending?
09:11Is the kingdom inherently awful and a plague on humanity that should eventually die?
09:16No, it doesn't seem that bad.
09:18So why have it end?
09:20Eventually the sun's gonna expand into a red giant and destroy everyone on the planet if they don't evacuate it.
09:27If Sonic's okay with the kingdom dying because things die eventually.
09:32Letting the sun expand into the earth is the natural way.
09:36Would he oppose someone using magic to make that never able to happen?
09:41I don't see anything bad about that.
09:43Instead of telling Merlina how everything needs to die eventually right away.
09:48He basically says this story will end when I say so.
09:52Not even explaining why he wants it to end.
09:55You can't have Sonic talk to people with big statements to make.
09:59Sonic is to inspire people or give them energy.
10:02He sounds very stupid arguing with Merlina.
10:05Someone far more articulate and intelligent.
10:08This point was made in Sonic Dissector 2.
10:10I wonder what they would think of Sonic in issue 50.
10:13Arguing with someone with a big statement to make.
10:16Sonic is acting like the world should end just because.
10:19Despite everyone dying being the result of that.
10:23And the frustrating thing is that he's usually all about saving the world from ending.
10:28Making him a hypocrite.
10:30Implying that he doesn't value this universe's worth here as much as his own.
10:34It's not the universe's fault that it looks like Camelot.
10:38It's not even an identical copy.
10:40So again, it's not Camelot.
10:43Merlina can be viewed as the villain for getting help from the Underworld Forces.
10:46Because the Underworld Forces are evil.
10:48The Underworld Forces are evil because they don't get along with the people here.
10:53Maybe if they're there long enough, everyone will get used to each other.
10:58There's no reason Merlina would give the Underworld Forces better rights than the natives.
11:03It's not an obvious anti-monarchy message.
11:07Nobody in the story is arguing that monarchy is bad because it's authoritarianism.
11:12And it's not because the scabbard brainwashes people into being evil.
11:17Or at least it shouldn't be.
11:19Because he should know if she's taking the scabbard, it must be because she's immune to it.
11:25Because she's a wizard.
11:27Merlina was nothing but nice the entire game.
11:30Nicer than Caliburn.
11:32So he has no reason not to trust her to be a good ruler.
11:35In Sonic Chronicles, Sonic didn't demonize someone for becoming a ruler out of complete nowhere.
11:41Because he was nice.
11:43Why did the evil scabbard even exist?
11:46Why didn't someone just throw it in a volcano?
11:49Because it's too dangerous.
11:51It's a plot twist for the sake of a plot twist.
11:53Because the story would be over too quickly.
11:56You know, they could've just had more nights.
11:59Then the plot would've lasted long enough without destroying a character.
12:04Merlina isn't really with Sonic enough for you to grow attached to her in a deep and meaningful way.
12:09This would've been powerful if it was Chara.
12:12This is too incongruent with her previous character.
12:16This is the least villainous motive ever.
12:19Maybe don't have her have a well-intentioned justification.
12:23Because it's too good.
12:25To the point where she only looks like a villain because of her underworld forces methods.
12:30Wizards can summon anything.
12:32I don't even know why she does summon the underworld forces.
12:35Even if that's a natural consequence of her using the thing.
12:38Why doesn't she just zap them away?
12:40If she warps Sonic here, why doesn't she just warp him home?
12:45At least it leads to a scene where everyone's being a badass.
12:49It's an action-packed cutscene.
12:51The only reason she would let the castle crumble is that she wants them to get killed.
12:57Which, again, completely contradicts how nice she was earlier.
13:01Why did she compliment Sonic when she didn't have to?
13:04If she had nothing to gain from flattering him.
13:07Is she such a pathetic wizard that she can't stop her castle from crumbling?
13:13But if you ignore the context, this is a great cutscene.
13:17Cutscenes like this are a lot more suited to the adventure-loving thrill-seeking speeds through Sonic the Hedgehog.
13:24It's also a reverse setup from Sonic and the Secret Rings in its villain introduction scene.
13:29Sonic awesomely escapes from the villain, so the villain is given badass points.
13:34And so is the hero.
13:36But hoping that a crumbling castle takes out her enemies is such a risky, roundabout way of killing them for a wizard.
13:44It's a good thing for them she's too stupid to just teleport them into a wall.
13:48Sonic is a dick to the knights for standing around doing nothing.
13:52Sonic, you took their swords!
13:56And why is he yelling at them for standing still when they can't do anything because of him?
14:00Why didn't they just immediately say that?
14:03Sonic is a dick to them saying that they don't have to serve a king to be proper knights.
14:08And granted, he's right.
14:10But it could have been a lot nicer about it.
14:12Also, isn't the whole point of a knight to serve a king?
14:15It's like saying, you don't have to be legally employed as a cop to be a cop.
14:20A knight that isn't serving a king isn't a knight.
14:23He's just a hero.
14:25Why would he lecture someone who's been a knight for his entire life on what it means to be a knight?
14:30Knuckles complains.
14:32He sounds like he's just about to convince the knights to do something without Sonic even being needed.
14:37Why does he say chivalry?
14:39I thought chivalry was supposed to be about how you treat women.
14:43It's like he doesn't know what the word chivalry means.
14:46Again, he's being a dick about it.
14:48He's right.
14:49But an enthusiastic and cheerful, we-can-do-it tone would have been a lot more sympathetic.
14:55And it would have been how he was in Sonic Heroes.
14:58Amy appears out of nowhere.
15:00Good thing she happened to stalk them because she wanted to see how Sonic would succeed or not.
15:05The knights say they'll help Sonic.
15:07She doesn't have to summon underworld forces.
15:10If there isn't a king, if the king died without an heir, nobody's gonna oppose her if she declares herself the ruler.
15:17She doesn't need the underworld forces for support.
15:21I totally get making herself immortal.
15:24The next couple cutscenes are nothing but the same thing over and over.
15:27A knight puts a sword into stone.
15:30And this is supposed to make Excalibur more powerful.
15:33According to Amy, the barrier is still too weak, somehow.
15:37Glad to see that making the barrier was pointless.
15:41The same reason I confronted the original Janna a lot more emotional punch, because the entire game was building up to that.
15:47What good is a world that goes on forever?
15:49That's one of the stupidest lines you've ever said.
15:52Why do you want the world to be destroyed eventually?
15:55He didn't say this in SA2.
15:58It's like making him a nihilist.
16:01Oh well, it doesn't matter if the world ends eventually.
16:04It's the natural way.
16:06That's reserved for villains.
16:08Just because it's the way of nature doesn't make it good.
16:11Sonic says he doesn't want to understand.
16:14Which makes him sound like a stubborn, spoiled brat.
16:17Imagine if someone said, I'll make America last forever.
16:20Wouldn't it be just as confusing if he was opposed to that?
16:24He tries to attack Merlina.
16:26Clearly in a lethal way.
16:29She protects herself with her magic and gets him beaten up in a humanizing moment that I appreciate.
16:34And eventually the sword's blade gets broken.
16:37And we're supposed to feel sorry for an annoying helper character.
16:41He's bickered with the sword the entire game.
16:44In an overly depressing and dark moment that comes out of nowhere,
16:48the knights keep telling him to give up and run and he keeps refusing to.
16:52And they're telling him to give up because they care about him.
16:56A golden light rises up and Sonic ends up going super.
17:00Because it's the end of the story.
17:02Did the sword have to be destroyed for this to happen?
17:06Wouldn't Amy have known that?
17:08Wouldn't she have told him to damage the sword?
17:11Or was it going to happen regardless?
17:14Sonic's not articulately mature enough to properly explain his side of the argument.
17:19And there's really nothing to explain.
17:21Because there's no reason for him to be opposed to a country lasting forever.
17:25Name one con!
17:27Sonic doesn't explain that the Eternal Kingdom will be eternally in ruin anyways because of the underworld forces.
17:34He spends the whole fight bickering with her over nothing.
17:37After Merlina is defeated, all the damage she did is magically undone.
17:42I guess it's because her power is weakened and so she can't maintain the spell in the kingdom.
17:47Although that doesn't explain why the underworld forces somehow vanished.
17:51They have free will.
17:53Was she controlling them with brainwashing?
17:56Maybe the scabbard was only able to control the underworld forces.
18:01If it wasn't controlling them, why would the forces willingly work for her?
18:06I mean, she doesn't look like them.
18:08Sonic has a moment of insightful articulateness that he should have had earlier on.
18:14He says he should live life to the fullest and appreciate flowers while they last.
18:19Still doesn't properly refute her point about why she shouldn't stop the ruin of her kingdom.
18:24Since we're still fully capable of appreciating things even when we know they'll last forever.
18:29How would she stop appreciating her own kingdom?
18:32At least he's being nice instead of a dick for once.
18:36Sonic didn't see the Ark trying to crash into the Earth and shrug his shoulders and say,
18:41Every world has its end.
18:43Because that was his planet.
18:45Shadow says the knights must disband even though there's no reason they shouldn't keep protecting the world anymore.
18:52Why not just elect a new king? Hold an election?
18:57Democracy was a thing in ancient Greece. It's not like there's no president for it.
19:02Caliburn reminds them that he's the sacred sword.
19:05And so he is the one who decides who is worthy of the crown.
19:09Just because he's sacred?
19:11How is he sacred unless he was created by a god?
19:16Out of nowhere, all of a sudden,
19:19The knights all say in shock that Sonic is the one and true King Arthur.
19:24Even though nothing even in that very cutscene was logically leading up to them getting that conclusion.
19:30He's not responsible enough to be a good king and prefers to run back to his world.
19:35Just because he's worthy of the crown, despite not being responsible,
19:40Doesn't mean that he's King Arthur.
19:42He can't be King Arthur when he didn't originate from that world.
19:45And he has his own world to live in.
19:48Tails should have been the real King Arthur.
19:51It would have made more sense considering the whole hardworking man becomes king thing in medieval times.
19:57Apparently it's typical Camelot myth storytelling.
20:00Having plot twists with no real foreshadowing that create logical inconsistencies.
20:06Oh, I guess we got back to that point.
20:09And Amy's a jerk in the ending.
20:12Some friend.
20:14This was a good story until Merlina got demonized.
20:18It's the perfect action-packed tone for a Sonic game and uses its environment well.
20:23But the plot twists are stupid.
20:25Merlina's demonized for the wrong reason.
20:28And Sonic comes off as a major hypocrite and a little too dickish.
20:32But we're supposed to agree with him the whole time.
20:34The characters in Black Knight don't get much opportunity to snap back at Sonic when he's a jerk.
20:40I find Sonic's snarky attitude towards other characters a lot better when he's not coming off as a bully being the only one acting like a jerk.
20:47For the most part though, Sonic is written really well.
20:51Still doing the right thing even though he ignores Caliburn.
20:54I hate Caliburn.
20:56And the fact that the game expects me to like him.
20:58He's only there for Sonic to have someone to argue with.
21:02He didn't need someone to argue with.
21:04Merlina would've been fine.
21:06The thing the story is best for is establishing Sonic's character.
21:10It's just too bad it doesn't explain it better.