Sonic and the Black Knight - Sort of Reimagined

[cosmichaos]

Hey, so for no particular reason, I was thinking about what S&tBK could have been. I love the game, and this isn't meant to be a critique of what actually happened. The game was honestly pretty solid imo. The characterization for Sonic was probably the best it's ever going to get, I honestly really loved that Merlina was the villain(albeit, you could see it coming from a mile away), the designs were all amazing, and though the Wiimote/nunchuck controls could be a little awkward at times, at least this game HAD nunchuck controls(lookin' at you, Secret Rings). So basically, all that I'm doing here is giving my half baked take on a what if scenario for Sonic and the Black Knight. I don't actually expect anyone to read or comment on this, seeing as it's stupid, but whatever! I need a place to rant about Sonic related crap and the SS happens to be it. Fair warning, this is going to be a long rant, so grab a blankie and some potato chips and get cozy.

So, the main thing that I think would be cool is if Sonic actually had a counterpart. And this counterpart is none other than the Dark King Arthur himself. Just erase the humanoid one and replace it with a corrupted version of Sonic's royal counterpart. He is indeed the real King Arthur, not an illusion created by Merlin, and he is actually corrupted. Instead of being pulled into the world of Arthurian Legend to commit first degree murder(which he is a bit too eager to do, hilariously), Sonic instead is tasked with purifying the King's heart and turning him back into the just and kind ruler he used to be. Merlina IS still the main villain, but I'll get to that in a second.

Second, the Knights of the Round Table. In the original game we are introduced to them in the first cutscene, where we see that they are the loyal lackeys to the King, regardless of if he's a big ass. This...doesn't exactly line up, at least not in my eyes. Lancelot, Gawain, and Percival all seem to be good people, so why follow a King who stands for hatred and cruelty? I doubt that they(especially considering the three people they are parallels of) would just stand idly by and let all this happen. SO, my explanation for this? Merlina hexed their minds, forcing them into a illusionary world where the Dark King they now serve is the same kind one they knew all their lives. So they don't even know that they're now serving a tyrant. So in my take, when Sonic meets the Lady of the Lake, she grants him the REAL Caliburn/Excalibur, charming the sword with her own magic, able to break any curse or hex. She tells him to find each of the Knights of the Roundtable and defeat them to break the illusion, hopefully creating an alliance once they realize who they've been serving.

Ok, now,onto Merlina(I'm sorry this is taking so long, but at least I'm not covering EVERYTHING in the game, right??). So, yes, she's still the villain, because I don't want to demote her to simpering sidekick. She was a really cool villain and I'm sad she's not more recognized in canon. Basically I'm just rearranging a few aspects of her character and motives. So, instead of Merlin conjuring King Arthur and then Merlina ordering Sonic to kill him, Merlina herself  was the one to create the Dark King, but not in the "look I conjured this guy out of thin air" sense. So, in the one of the many variations of the Tale of King Arthur, the King is mortally wounded in a fight and later dies from his injuries. Let's go with this. King Arthur, after a terrible battle, was wounded and dying. Merlina had already foreseen this happening and feared the fall of Camelot itself, the tragic ending of the world as she knew it. So, one night, she went to the King's quarters to "pay her final respects", when in reality she hoped to heal Arthur's body and preserve him eternally, using the only method she knew: Dark Magic. It worked, but the cursed scabbard she replaced Arthur's legendary sword with began to corrupt the King, causing him to become so dependent on it's dark power that it fully overtook him, turning him into a heartless tyrant. Merlina hoped to use the Dark King to carry out her ambitions for the kingdom, but his power rivaled even her own, and she ultimately failed at controlling such a powerful will.

Merlina summons Sonic, lies to him, basically saying "oh yeah the King he's SUPER evil you should like kill him for me its not like I'm also evil or anything haahahah", and Sonic, wonderfully foolish Sonic, completely believes her and goes off with the intention of ending a life, until he meets Nimue, who explains that King Arthur is simply corrupted, and the smarter course of action would be to try to purify him, not chop his head off. So from this point onwards Sonic suspects Merlina has darker intentions, but goes along with it, figuring he'll deal with that when it becomes a problem. Then he fights the knights, breaks the illusion, yada yada yada, and then finally he gets to King Arthur and Merlina. The clever sorceress has managed to convince the Dark King that Sonic has taken control of his knights, turned them against their King, and is now coming to kill him. Arthur buys it and teams up with Merlina for the final boss. During the fight Sonic still transforms into Excalibur Sonic, but instead of fighting just the Dark Queen he's also fighting the Dark King, who muses throughout the fight that Sonic shares a striking resemblance to someone familiar, but he just can't place him(the Dark King doesn't remember anything about his real personality, he can only feel a sense of Deja Vu when he's reminded of his past). The only other thing that would be different about this fight is that the three Knights of the Round Table are also involved in the fight, and you get to play as them throughout it. Sonic mainly focuses on taking down the Dark Queen, while the Knights mainly focus on taking down the Dark King.

Lastly(god i am so sorry), once the fight is over, Merlina goes back to her original form, distraught that her plan to eternally preserve the kingdom failed, while King Arthur rises from the wreckage of Camelot Castle, looking around in utter confusion. While the Knights, overjoyed to see their King returned to his original state, go to check on him, Sonic walks over to Merlina and gives his little speech about everything being finite(that whole scene was GOLD, wouldn't change it), and then gently asks to be sent home, seeing as it looks like his work is done. The true King Arthur looks at the kingdom in dismay, proclaiming that they've got a LOT of rebuilding to do, before promptly turning to Merlina and asking her if she'll assist him. Surprised, she can't believe that Arthur would want her help after all the damage she caused, to which the King shrugs and replies that everyone deserves a second chance, even if their first chance ended up with the castle falling apart and himself becoming an evil overlord. After receiving thanks and an offer to be knighted(much to his dismay), Sonic is sent home and tells the whole story to Amy, who doesn't buy it and goes after him for missing their "date"(that was funny, I'd keep that ending scene in the game).

Anyway, I am really sorry. This got out of hand way faster than I though it would. I meant for it to be like 3 paragraphs long, and now it's a bloody essay. Whoopsie daisy. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by cosmichaos

[Lorekitten]

I love it. Wish I had more to say about this than just 'I love it,' but I don't really know what else to say.

[cosmichaos]

2 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

I love it. Wish I had more to say about this than just 'I love it,' but I don't really know what else to say.

Lol, that ok! I'm just glad that you like it! Normally I'm not to sure of myself when it comes to getting my ideas out there, but I decided to take the leap and I'm glad that it worked out. :)

[Lorekitten]

6 minutes ago, cosmichaos said:

Lol, that ok! I'm just glad that you like it! Normally I'm not to sure of myself when it comes to getting my ideas out there, but I decided to take the leap and I'm glad that it worked out. :)

No prob! I'm not sure why, but I love seeing other people's reimaginings of what Sonic games could've been. Possibly it's because I enjoy seeing the hidden potential drawn out of a concept that deserved better.

[Vraptor008]

I actually really love the idea. I also they they could redo it and make it available on Xbox, PS, and switch. Since Frontiers has combat they could fix the levels to where you press the buttons to attack and get combos and such. Great idea!

[cosmichaos]

2 hours ago, Vraptor008 said:

I actually really love the idea. I also they they could redo it and make it available on Xbox, PS, and switch. Since Frontiers has combat they could fix the levels to where you press the buttons to attack and get combos and such. Great idea!

Thanks so much! I'm really glad that it's well received, considering I wasn't to sure about posting it. And yes, I would absolutely love a S&tBK remake. I've been hoping for one for years, even though deep down I know it's probably never going to happen. With a few changes to the gameplay and graphics it would be a phenomenal Sonic game, and the Storybook series is ripe for the world of remakes. I'm still a bit salty over the fact that they took Sonic Colors, a game that didn't need a remake, rubbed Vaseline on the camera and gave it a seizure feature then sold it to the public for Sonic's 30th anniversary. 

Maybe for a Black Knight remake they could implement ideas from previous Sonic games. I don't know about you, but I love Sonic games with hub worlds. Say what you will about Rise of Lyric, but I thought the almost open world like exploration really satisfying, and I would love to see another Sonic game that has that. They could have hub worlds in Camelot, Mystic Lake, and other areas that are pivotal in the story, allowing access to various levels through exploration rather than a selection screen. Once you defeat the bosses you can talk to them and play as them trough the the hub world. 

[Vraptor008]

3 hours ago, cosmichaos said:

Thanks so much! I'm really glad that it's well received, considering I wasn't to sure about posting it. And yes, I would absolutely love a S&tBK remake. I've been hoping for one for years, even though deep down I know it's probably never going to happen. With a few changes to the gameplay and graphics it would be a phenomenal Sonic game, and the Storybook series is ripe for the world of remakes. I'm still a bit salty over the fact that they took Sonic Colors, a game that didn't need a remake, rubbed Vaseline on the camera and gave it a seizure feature then sold it to the public for Sonic's 30th anniversary. 

Maybe for a Black Knight remake they could implement ideas from previous Sonic games. I don't know about you, but I love Sonic games with hub worlds. Say what you will about Rise of Lyric, but I thought the almost open world like exploration really satisfying, and I would love to see another Sonic game that has that. They could have hub worlds in Camelot, Mystic Lake, and other areas that are pivotal in the story, allowing access to various levels through exploration rather than a selection screen. Once you defeat the bosses you can talk to them and play as them trough the the hub world. 

I have yet to play any of the Sonic Boom games but I love open world. I would really love a Sonic the Hedgehog open world with some classic zones. Like green hill and even an open world Chemical plant would be cool. A Wisp based game in open world would also be awesome. I hope they stay with the Frontiers idea. It's a really nice touch on the franchise.

[cosmichaos]

2 hours ago, Vraptor008 said:

I have yet to play any of the Sonic Boom games but I love open world. I would really love a Sonic the Hedgehog open world with some classic zones. Like green hill and even an open world Chemical plant would be cool. A Wisp based game in open world would also be awesome. I hope they stay with the Frontiers idea. It's a really nice touch on the franchise.

I wouldn't exactly recommend Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric, it is an objectively bad game, but I had a lot of fun with it personally. If you're prepared for glitches galore and a story with enough plot holes to remake the Grand Canyon, then you'll get some amazing character interactions and some of the most fluid character animations of any Sonic game in return. I'm serious. The game may be terrible, but the way the characters move and interact is what made the experience. For me, anyways. 

And I completely agree on the Sonic Frontiers formula! The game definitely had it's issues, as every game does, but it was good for a first try, and if they try to continue to improve upon what they started, I think they've got something solid. The open-zone formula is a great idea, especially for a character like Sonic, and I'd love to see it be actually consistent in the franchise. 

[Vraptor008]

2 hours ago, cosmichaos said:

I wouldn't exactly recommend Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric, it is an objectively bad game, but I had a lot of fun with it personally. If you're prepared for glitches galore and a story with enough plot holes to remake the Grand Canyon, then you'll get some amazing character interactions and some of the most fluid character animations of any Sonic game in return. I'm serious. The game may be terrible, but the way the characters move and interact is what made the experience. For me, anyways. 

And I completely agree on the Sonic Frontiers formula! The game definitely had it's issues, as every game does, but it was good for a first try, and if they try to continue to improve upon what they started, I think they've got something solid. The open-zone formula is a great idea, especially for a character like Sonic, and I'd love to see it be actually consistent in the franchise. 

Maybe if Sega would put together an open world Sonic Adventure type game. I don't know. Just a thought.