I wanna talk about Chris' Media Literacy

So either I'm fucking retarded and can't find the CWCki article about it, or there just isn't one.

Ms. Mowz and I had this conversation somewhat recently where we talked about how Chris is so bad at media literacy he very likely thought that Xander from Drawn Together was a serious character, and thus Darkbind took inspiration from him, when in reality Xander is a parody of Link, and how flamboyant his Ocarina of Time, most mainstream Zelda game till Breath of the Wild blew everyone away, design can come off.

But I kinda wanna expand upon it, and this is why



So for those who haven't heard, Chris tried his hand at speedrunning Sonic 06 and failed because he's incompetent, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe he just wasn't smart enough to use Legacy of Solaris (the fan-patch for the 360 version) or P-06 (The fan remake that removes the plot entirely, but enhances the gameplay)

Of the two I prefer Legacy of Solaris myself, but moving on.

Chris started it with a little story that totally really happened about how in February 2006 he had a birthday party where all the Sonichus showed up and Team Rocket with Liquid Chris' assistance tried to ruin it, even though Liquid Chris shouldn't be a thing yet if it's still 2006, but whatever....

Only for Alakazam to teleport them all away, something that shouldn't be possible since Team Rocket had 2 Darkrai leading the charge which are immune to psychic attacks... but... again whatever

The part that fascinates me is that Christine came from the future to give her past self a gift of four cards for Twilight Sparkle's Secret Ship-Fic Folder (Which doesn't make any sense, FiM isn't a thing yet in 2006 and... why does Chris think this novelty parody card game is something as serious as Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering)

Mainly because Sonic and Tails showed up to meet Christine, because they knew that Chris-Chan was God the whole time and were honored to meet God.

In the story Christine (That's the Future Chris) tells Sonic and Tails that in one year's time the events of Sonic 06 will happen and they must prepare for them, and that this is totally canon to the games because it's a C-197 event.

Now, the part that my autistic brain can't get around is the revelation that Chris, does not actually know Sonic lore, like at all. But isn't Sonic like his number one jam or whatever?

Because Sonic 06 retcons itself out of existence at the end of the game with Sonic and Elise going back to prevent the events of the game. If that happened, then C-197 Christine can't know about it, because only our dimension should have knowledge of Sonic 06

Tails says the stuff about the Flames of Disaster and Elise sounds crazy, and that they shouldn't believe it, but then Sonic says he's seen weirder things and names two things: The time he met his future self and the scars Scourge gave him..

But that just raises further questions, because the version of Sonic that meets his future self is specifically Classic Sonic, but he's from another dimension, specifically the Classic Timeline where the events of Sonic Superstars and Sonic Generations happen, but Sonic The Hedgehog 4 (which yes, is canon as locations from it appear in IDW Sonic, which is in continuity with the games, though that now means it's canon that Knuckles has met Superman) does not.

Meaning the Sonic that goes into Sonic 06 shouldn't have experienced the events of Sonic Generations.

Now if I'm overthinking it and Chris just wanted to be cute and reference Sonic Generations, not thinking about it too hard, sure, maybe I'm the weird one here.

But really it's the Scourge comment that raises flags.

Scourge is a character that only exists in the Pre-Genesis Wave Continuity for Archie Sonic. Specifically he's an Evil version of Sonic from the Planet Moebius; an alternate Planet Mobius that reverses morality so that right is wrong and wrong is right.

Evil Sonic was a frustrating character because he only did one of two things, get treated as a real threat only to be defeated easily (One time by Antione of all people! And this was before he was retconned from comic relief into being a badass), and showing up without his clothes in order to pretend to be the real Sonic while Sonic was away.... Something he would use to sexually take advantage of women who believed they were being propositioned by the real Sonic (Something I'm sadly not making up, Ken Penders is a horrible person)

Evil Sonic was so uncreatively bland that he wasn't a real popular character until Ian Flynn took him over and did a story where Evil Sonic, wanting to be taken more seriously, gains a new form and changes his name to Scourge to make himself stand-out from his rival; the Goody-Goody Two Shoes version of himself Sonic of Mobius.

This was actually done because of a mandate from Archie in response to fans complaining that Evil Sonic's storyline was too repetitive, demanding that the character be changed to no longer do the "Oh no it's Evil Sonic in disguise!" twist.

So when does Scourge give Sonic scars and why is this a big deal for me? Well first off Scourge DOESN'T give Sonic scars, Scourge RECEIVES Scars during a battle with Locke The Echidna (Knuckles' dad), a fight that Sonic was not even present for as it was Scourge and Rouge Vs. Locke, and Locke only survives because Rouge refuses to continue working with Scourge if he doesn't stick to a no killing rule.

(Ken sadly treated Shadow and Rouge as generic throwaway villains in protest of being forced to include elements of SA2 when he didn't want to, Ian Flynn wrote the Scourge stories but basically had to continue with that to keep the book consistent)

Secondly. Archie Sonic didn't take place in the game canon, it even advertised itself as a "World beyond what you know from the Sega games" in its later issues. Even if it did, Scourge's storyline was written closer to 2010 than 2006. So why would game canon Sonic even have any inclination of who Scourge is? He might know Surge, the Sega approved Re-Re-Design (and gender flip) of Scourge, but even then that character shows up between Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers, so he wouldn't know her at the time. Even if she did, Surge doesn't have scars nor does she give them to Sonic.

(to be fair though a Sonic 06 inspired storyline involving Silver's introduction to the Archie Sonic Comic does happen during the last Arc with Scourge fighting Sonic before the reboot takes place)

Now my point isn't that I'm a total Sonic geek who loves the blue blur and knows everything about him, my point is, if Chris gets lore details about SONIC this incorrect... How much of ANY form of media can he properly digest? What does he see when he sees a movie?

How does he read a comic book where Locke gives Scourge scars and understands that as Scourge giving Sonic scars, when Sonic wasn't even present when the scarring happens? Nor does any incarnation of Sonic have a "trademark scar" of any kind? Does he understand that Archie Sonic is its own continuity or does he think that all Sonic media is canon to each other and that Manic and Sonia just never talk to their brother anymore for some reason?

How much does Chris understand about, anything he sees really? Surely one of you has something to add here.

Because my point isn't "Chris got Sonic lore wrong", my point is "If Chris gets EVEN SONIC'S LORE WRONG, something he definitely cares about.. How much does he understand any media he takes in? Does he even know that Darth Vader is Luke's father? Does he not understand that Monty Python And The Holy Grail is a parody? Or is this a movie he takes so seriously that it's why Arthurian Legend is in the Dimensional Merge lore?

Or am I overthinking and the truth is he really does not care about Sonic at all outside of "Something to base Sonichu off of?", which is an alternative scenario that wouldn't surprise me sadly.

 

I would say he has no idea how advertising works, considering he unironically thought that Axe body spray would make him irresistible to women.

I would also say that Chris has no idea how comics are supposed to work, considering the confusing panel and speech bubble structure, as well as the many, many walls of text.

 

God this image is one of my absolute favorite when it comes to Chris. The fact that he legitimately believes that Axe Body Spray is a shower in a can is one of the funniest gags I've ever heard in my entire life, and it's sadly not a joke.

The Sonic example I gave really sticks with me, while it's not news that Chris fails to understand anything properly, I'm actually bent into a pretzel trying to think how Chris can look at a fight that Sonic isn't even in, where a character who is blatantly not Sonic gets a scar, a character who later fights Sonic, Sonic who doesn't have the scar, and Scourge who does...

I just...

The only thing I could think of is that Chris never actually read Archie Sonic #160 and merely knows the gist of Scourge, and just lazily found a way to work him into the story. Which is probably the correct answer if his paper on World War 2 is any indication.

Still it may be worth it to look at Chris talking about media and analyze how much he actually understands said media. Could be some good lulz to be had.

I remember not knowing how advertising once and thinking eating Fruity Gushers would actually temporarily change my head into a fruit of some kind, and wanted to try them to experience a real life transformation like in the cartoons.... Though to be fair I was five and had an overactive imagination. I used to pretend eating Skittles would let me change the color of something with my mind, then imagine things like red school busses.

Chris was in his late 20's when he drew the Axe Body Spray ad if memory serves.

Edit: Sidenote, he spelled deodorant wrong.

 

A great example of this to me is how Chris thinks that Eric Cartman from South Park is actually supposed to be likable, and that you're supposed to agree with him. Chris's inability to understand satire, and that certain main characters in works of satire aren't meant to be portrayed as likable or agreeable is a huge symptom of his media illiteracy. It's like he accepted the basic "the main character is always the good guy" formula as the way things are supposed to be when he was a kid, and he never grew out of it when he got older.

This would further show when trolls and detractors would compare Chris to Cartman, and he never understood that these people were mocking him.

 

If I recall correctly someone made an animation depicting Chris as Cartman with audio from Chris going to the GamePlace and trying to talk to Michael Snyder about his ban, and Chris thought it was hillarious; not realizing it was in mockery of him.

In this audio Chris called Snyder a jew in a derogatory sense. Which I always found weird as I never thought of Chris as being openly anti-semetic. Maybe he thought "jew" was just a standard edgy insult Cartman used, had no idea what it meant, and wasn't actually meaning to imply that Snyder was of Hebrew descent or believed in God, but not Jesus.... I dunno.

 

You're making the mistake of assuming Chris is capable of comprehending a story. Yes, he's played every Sonic game, but everything that wasn't the most basic surface-level plot devices (like shallow romance or, as you said, "the protagonist is always the hero") may as well be a foreign language to him, it very much goes in one ear and out the other, like trying to talk to a dog. Chris is like those tiny <1B LLMs that are literally only capable of telling a children's story about a little girl going to her grandmother's house.

The only exception would probably be his obsession with the evil doppelgangers that are always in cartoons, that's the only "not shallow romance or mundane action scene" plot device he registers because he relates with it due to how overtly ego-centric he is.

Also, if you asked Chris any of this, he would probably just say that everyone in the alternate dimensions all know about each other and the events in their lives unconditionally, it's just that we're the only ones behind the "iron curtain", thus the very concepts of continuity or canonical sequences of events are null and void in the multiverse. Not trying to cover for Chris, you're absolutely right, he literally just doesn't understand the plot of Sonic despite how simple it is, but that would probably be his excuse, lmao. Actually, I always had it in the back of my mind that Chris actively pushing this "multiverse" thing was his unconscious way of trying to erase the concepts of continuity and canonical events, which he has in fact outright said he hated in the past. Kind of an interesting defense mechanism. Like, yeah it's half wish fulfilment of just wanting to see his favorite characters interact, but I think, without him really being aware of it, he wants to destroy the concept of story telling outright, because he simply does not understand it.

 

I really wish we could sit down with Chris and ask him to summarize the plot of various media he has consumed. I feel like that would be funny until it wasn't anymore.

Like what does he think happened in Sonic Adventure 2? Does he see Gerald Robotnik as being a complete villain like his movie counterpart?

Because ultimately we might find that Chris literally doesn't care about the story, but rather about seeing colorful character do thing....

Is what I'd say but didn't the mailbag reveal he had no trouble following the complicated plot of Saw? Which doesn't really have "Color Character doing thing."