5

This also helps for the Freedom Fighters all backing up Sonic when we pull back and see them all chipping in and supporting his words. As before, this pisses Eggman off and he accidentally blasts the Time Stone. This time, he appears to fire three wild shots, so it seems like more of an accident, and the effects caused by the Stone being cracked are much more intense, the time lightning even destroys Eggman’s pistol. This was another benefit from the remastering process because it allowed me to do these scenes of the Time Stones breaking and their power being unleashed much clearer and more dramatic, rather than the effects from the old Saga. And those electrical effects and the whole sky and everything was not easy to do.

6

This time, the sky is alight with colour taken from Sonic CD when you travel through time, electrical time lightning and the background is inverted and the foreground is not, a much more complicated and cataclysmic effect to show the Little Planet is warping into the time stream. Though I liked seeing Sonic uppercut Eggman in the original Saga, his attacks and fighting style are more about his kicks and break-dance moves, so I used that to show him kicking Eggman’s teeth down his throat this time. Because Cream can now fly by herself, she and Ray don’t team up here, but I went to some effort to try and give the illusion of Mighty riding on Knuckles a bit better. The Little Planet effects are much more complicated here, as the Planet is now twirling and being distorted as it enters the time stream, before being sucked in and leaving only a flash of energy and light. Quite difficult to do but well worth it, the old shot of the Planet half-there and half-gone always bugged me, but here I got to fix it.

7

Just for kicks, I went against type here and used a big, bold Epilogue title like I always do for the Prologue. I don’t know why I never did a big Epilogue title before so I stuck one in here while I was at it. The Knuckles/Chaotix pairing here is given re-worked dialogue to make it seem a bit more believable and explain exactly why they decide to take on Knuckles’s offer to stay on Floating Island- they want to serve the greater good and use their skills to help the Freedom Fighters. It also ties up Knuckles’s subtle character arc in this comic of disregarding surface matters, as he now recognises that surface problems can be his problems and he will need some help to deal with those problems. Amy and Cream, also with re-worked dialogue, get to say their goodbyes on a background I’ve always wanted to use and never really managed to- the sea line coast we see in the introduction to Sonic 3. It makes for a better visual as we can clearly see that Cream is flying across the sea to Flickie’s Island, not just, you know, flying away. Similarly, Ray and Tails find themselves back at the launching pad for the Tornado, with new buddy-buddy dialogue that shows Ray enjoyed the adventure.

8

This last shot of them, Tails makes reference to Ray being the protector of Westside Island and Ray, in return, says Tails would make a good protector of Mobius. He didn’t say South Island, he says Mobius, just another hint towards Tails’s true destiny as a hero in his own right, part of Tails’s story arc that eventually comes through in The Chaos Ring Saga and Sonic: Liberty. As before, Sonic runs alone through Emerald Hill, pondering the future, but we now end with him on a cliff edge, daring Eggman’s wrath and that gives us our final black and white still frame shot to end the comic.

OVERALL

Yes, well…It’s actually a shorter page length than before because of my techniques now that are more about condensing and less white space, but it’s jut as strong an entry I think. With improved effects, cleaned up fights and more emphasis on what’s happening, I think this is a vast improvement, as all the other Parts of this Remastered Edition have been. While it’s true I have never thought of The Time Stone Saga as being that strong an entry in my series, remastering the comic in this way has allowed me to love it again and I really wanted to give it true justice by tweaking Zonik, updating the dialogue, creating all new backgrounds and dialogue and making it grander and more dramatic to really get across how important this entry is. This was nice for me to do, to go back to a simpler time when Zonik was just a lackey, when Eggman was a manipulating puppet master, with new characters given their proper time to shine. It inspires me t try and capture that essence again in future comics. It’s been great to revisit this Saga and I hope you agree that these changes have been an overall improvement in the quality, and continuity, of this epic adventure!

Thanks for reading,

SkSpAwN/Stuart.