"Hopecest"? There Is A Lot Of Hope In This Universe... What Will You Choose?

"Hopecest"? There is a lot of hope in this universe... What will you choose?

I really don't like how the description of the promo image of the full Dark Beginnings has to specify that they're reaching for one another "like long lost siblings".

What is the difference between reaching for one another platonically and romantically? What makes that drawing different from the nearly identical scene of Sonic and Blaze in Rush, used as Sonaze fodder since the game came out? How is a blind person, the target audience, supposed to imagine the difference? And why does it matter?

It breaks the flow of the description and it feels... cowardly. Whoever wrote that description likely knows that a growing portion of the fanbase, especially on Twitter, thinks shipping Shadria is immoral, so they put their hands forward and shouted "THEY'RE SIBLINGS YOUR HONOR" to appease them.

Yes, I know the manuals have described their bond as sibling-like since the beginning, or at least ShTH. But was there any need to specify it here? Especially when Dark Beginnings itself just added more Shadria fuel (yeah it's very sibling-y to caress your brother's chest hair lol)?

I am not invested in Shadria but I don't understand the hate for it. It's cute. Shadow and Maria care for each other and are important to each other. There is no need to pigeon-hole their bond in a convenient label. There is no need to give an arm to the uptight fans who wrap their ship war (because let's face it, I'm sure many of those anti-Shadria people ship Sonadow lmao) in a morality question.

That piece has some real "Chihiro and Kohaku falling out the sky" energy going on tbh. Very kawaii and kakwáhyę. <3

Managed to find a few based tweets amidst the sea of Shadria antis popping champagne bottles, lol:

Based and Maekawa-pilled.

I do find it a tad sus how hard people cling to the ShTH manual as "proof" of pair's sibling relationship when the game proper never has Shadow or Maria describe it as such. The omission becomes even more salient when you recall that the Commander described Maria as being "like a sister" to him and "the only familly" he knew. Why does a Donut Steel nobody gives a shit about use those words, but not Shadow?

You mean to tell me in all 326 routes of Shadow The Hedgehog, Shadow does not take a single opportunity to say "I miss my sister Maria"? Wow, it's almost like ST left their dynamic open to interpretation for a reason. :v

Besides, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If the ShTH manual is watertight proof that shipping Shadria is incest, then I reserve the right to say that Sonic was forced into a date with Amy under duress in Unleashed because Black Knight's manual describes him as awaiting a "stressful encounter."

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(yeah it's very sibling-y to caress your brother's chest hair lol)?

...I don't think the antis realize that just makes it even hotter. what are you doing, step sis

Yeah, Maria has some... brow-raisingly romance anime-coded behaviors in these shorts. She's, uh... notably touchy-feely with Shadow.

Also, one last grenade to lob into the water, because fuck it, we're waking up and choosing violence today lmao:

I want to see Komaru holding his dead brother's body close to him, begging him to wake up and sobbing loudly. Toko tries to reason with the girl, saying “we need to move on if we don’t want to be next,” but the answer is only mumbling. Ms. Naegi simply doesn't want to leave Makoto, the person dear to her, she wants to hope he's still alive and she's not going to let him go. If she leaves the place, it will only be with his body on her back.

FUCK everything, look at itty bitty bby junko

My contribution to this meme

Hope x Despair... Such a lovely dicthotomy. One cannot exist without the other; they are two sides of the same coin. But they appear in different images...

So... Which image of dichotomy do you prefer?