Sonic Clone Chaos: Original Pitch (Patreon)

Below is the original outline I wrote up when first pitching what would become Sonic: Clone Chaos. It had a very different title at first. Every time I revised the story I changed the title. It went from this, to "Sonic's Brothers," to "Sonic's Quinquagintuple Trouble," to "So Many Sonics," to the final title that Mashed devised.

Now that both parts are released, have fun reading this strange early version!

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Sonic Moves So Fast That It Looks Like There’s Two Of Him

Because I have a lot of specific ideas and details about how this could go, I’ll start with a more bare and simplified version of the story that has all the most important beats:

• Sonic discovers a new power that allows him to move so fast between two points that it appears there are two identical copies of him and starts using it around town for fun
• Tails isn’t amused, warning Sonic of the potential consequences of exerting his powers for too long.
• Tails and the Sonics go around town greeting various other characters, each of which encourage Sonic to push his new technique just a bit further.
• For example, Big the Cat tells the Sonics that they should each wear different clothes, forcing Sonic to swap outfits every time he jumps between the copies, while Vector the Crocodile gives Sonic the idea to only talk out of one “clone’s” mouth at a time.
• Each time Sonic pushes his technique in a new way, it causes space-time vortexes to briefly appear and wreak a small bit of havoc, though Sonic remains unaware of this.
• When Tails has had enough of Sonic’s tomfoolery, it gives Sonic the idea to put on an 8-person concert all on his own just to prove his friend wrong.
• Things go awry at the concert, however, when the space-time anomalies finally catch up to Sonic, mutating him into a glitching glowing zombie that vomits rifts in space and causes time travel-related damage (such as aging a person hundreds of years with a single touch)
• Shadow, who is in the audience, unenthusiastically swoops in to cast Chaos Control on Sonic, which reverts him back to normal.
• Tails is relieved that his friend is okay, hoping that he learned his lesson about overexerting himself and using his gift of speed irresponsibly.
• Sonic has sort of learned his lesson, and imposes a compromise that he’ll limit it to two Sonics at a time and only do it once per day for a few minutes at a time.
• THE END

Now here’s the more expanded version that gets into how I imagine the flow of each scene will go, with a few specific jokes and moments fleshed out a little:

ACT 1

• Establishing outdoor shot of Tails exiting his workshop in the morning, ready to do the day’s errands. He checks a grocery list, when suddenly Sonic greets him.
• Tails looks up from his list to see two identical Sonics in front of him, moving and speaking in unison. Tails is utterly baffled yet amazed, wondering how Sonic cloned himself.
• He eventually deduces that Sonic has not cloned himself, but is in fact moving between two different points at such an insane speed that there appears to be two of him at the same time to the naked eye.
• Tails is immediately distressed by the danger such an extreme display of power could cause, but Sonic brushes it off. He’s taken on all kinds of ancient chaotic powers over the years and turned out fine. Plus, he’s been bored ever since Eggman got arrested.
• Tails still disapproves, but says he has to go run some errands for the day and walks off. The Sonics decide to tag along.

ACT 2

• Outside, the “trio” walks past Big the Cat, who is walking his pet, Froggy. Big greets Sonic and Tails, before asking who their “new friend” is. In unison, the Sonics say “Oh, this is just my, uh, twin cousin!”
• Big tells them that they’re hard to tell apart. He hands a hat and a scarf towards the Sonics, saying they should wear different clothes so people won’t get them mixed up.
• The two Sonics each take their new clothes. A slow-motion shot here would show Sonic having to move between the two different places of his clones, swapping the clothes he’s wearing each time.
• As Big waves goodbye to the three, a small, glowing, electric vortex appears and sucks in Froggy. The vortex vanishes before Big can notice.
• Later, at the grocery store checkout, Vector the Crocodile is working the cash register. He makes a little small talk with Tails, before questioning the two identical Sonics. Tails, still unamused by it, explains that it’s actually just one Sonic moving really fast.
• Vector tells Sonic it’s cool, but adds that the illusion would work better if they spoke one at a time as opposed to in unison.
• Sonic struggles to speak through one “clone” and not the other for a moment, before quickly getting the hang of it, with the two now speaking independently. Vector approves!
• After Tails and the Sonics walk off frame with their groceries, blue lighting suddenly envelopes the cash register, causing it to warp out of existence in a violent space-time implosion.
• Third sequence could either be a single encounter with another character, or a montage of various scenarios, in which Sonic utilizes his new technique. Haven’t really thought of anything specific yet, but some ideas could include helping out a basketball team short of a few players, wrangling Chao, etc. This should involve him creating at least a third copy of himself, with more space-time anomalies occurring unbeknownst to Sonic and Tails.
• By now, Tails has had enough of Sonic’s shenanigans and leaves him on his own. Sonic, feeling betrayed by this, is invigorated with spite to push his new power to the fullest. He sees a poster for an open mic night at the town’s amphitheater, and knows exactly what to do next.

ACT 3

• Later that night at the amphitheater, the Sonics are on stage with a band of 8. They attempt to play a song, but it’s horribly uncoordinated and they start getting booed.
• Giving up on the band idea, the Sonics decide to take requests from the audience on what to do instead.
• It snowballs until a bunch of the Sonics are stacked in a cheerleader pyramid, surrounded by other Sonics on unicycles juggling pins while attempting to recite the alphabet backwards. The Sonics all look visibly stressed and exhausted, constantly flickering and twitching and translucent to signify Sonic struggling to maintain the illusion.
• Just then, with a few sparks of blue lighting, a massive vortex appears and engulfs all of the Sonics individually. Once every last Sonic is consumed, the vortex morphs into a glitchy, zombie-like Sonic. His eyes glow blue like the vortex, and his body twitches erratically. He stumbles around a bit, vomiting up rifts in space, as the entire crowd screams in panic. Sonic touches one person, causing them to rapidly age hundreds of years and turn into a pile of dust.
• In the audience, Shadow, not panicked in the slightest, rolls his eyes and approaches Sonic. Placing a Chaos Emerald against Sonic’s head, Shadow unenthusiastically announces “Chaos Control,” which sucks the glowing vortex energy out of Sonic and leaves him back to normal, albeit unconscious on the ground.
• Ends with Tails waking Sonic up, relieved that he’s okay. Sonic sees the pile of dust and bones nearby and says “Did I kill that guy?” Tails replies “Yeah” and Sonic just says “Oh, that sucks!”
• Tails says he hopes Sonic learned his lesson, wishing that he’d never use that power again. Sonic then merely promises that he’ll limit it to two Sonics at a time, and only do it for five minutes at a time, and only once per day at most. Tails begrudgingly accepts the compromise, and Sonic springs back into action with his “twin.”
• Last shot could be a freeze frame of the two Sonics jumping together with Tails in the background.

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As I've said before, it was determined that this version of the story was too dull, and that there needed to be more structure for people to latch onto. That's where the suggestion to make the clones act independently as opposed to Sonic being in control of it all came from.

The Shadow ending was something I really tried to keep even as the story changed. It would have been sort of a non-sequitur anticlimax, like he just comes out of nowhere to clean up the mess and walks away. Here's a version of that ending I wrote that would have fit in with the story as it turned out in the final video:

• The other idea I was still considering was the original ending where Shadow comes in with a Chaos Emerald and siphons Sonic’s chaotic energy into it, both restoring him to normal while also taking away his powers. Shadow would just hear the commotion while walking by the tent (Screaming and explosions and people trying to crawl out of the exit, only to get dragged back in), and, being utterly unphased by it, casually walk in, perform a “Chaos Control,” and then walk out without another word. Tails would, somewhat awkwardly, thank Shadow as he leaves. When Sonic comes to and asks what happened, Tails would say “I guess he controlled your chaos.”
• This ending has the advantage of just being really simple and quick in a story that’s already pretty long by this point, and I think it’d be funny to resolve the entire conflict in such a deus-ex machina anticlimax. The very last gag in this case would be Sonic saying that he feels like he’s “mostly” all back together, only for it to cut back to the Sonic stuck between the springs, still locked in perpetual motion.

I was told people would be really dissatisfied with this, so we went with something more connected to the rest of the story. It's the old "Uncle Grandpa was supposed to be in Clarence" dilemma (If you don't know this story I would love to explain it in the comments).

I still honestly do like the original story I wrote up, but it was fine to change it since it WAS for a different channel, and they ultimately know what will work best for their own audience. If this were a TV show, I like to think the original story is how a typical, random episode would play out in terms of tone, whereas the final video is almost like a pilot that shows a variety of what the show could offer with a more exciting story to rope people in.