An explanation to the Chaos Emeralds?

[BaronSFel001]

Ah, but destruction does not mean evil. In fact, evil itself is a word we use to simply describe our moral boundaries, so how could it be evil, when evil itself is relative?

Anyway,

Chaos Blast could be a variant of Chaos Control. Chaos Control warps the very fabric of reality, so I could see it being altered to create an explosive and destructive blast. This would also mean that it's not inherently evil or good either, but Shadow uses it in ShtH with evil intent. Just like he uses Chaos Control with good intent in that game, but he's also used it for evil purposes.

Evil is not relative, except to those who subscribe to such a shaky moral code. I wonder if you meant to say something along the lines of certain acts not being inherently evil and therefore must be judged by their effects (because I would say Chaos Blast is one thing that squarely falls into that category). Anyway...

I would like to point out in this regard how the Sonic Battle storyline Professor Gerald was something of a pacifist idealist, equipping Shadow with a heart so the weapon would not have the will to commit acts of destruction. Rouge observed that, at least with Shadow, Gerald succeeded, because Shadow never used his powers except in necessity for a good cause (how much of that you choose to believe is left up to you, but at the very least it seems Shadow canonically did not make a habit of working for the Black Arms). How can Chaos Blast not be used for good, gameplay requirements aside (in the Sonic games, "Dark" is not equivalent to "evil")? It is not the G.U.N. (like the pun?) that kills, it is the hands that pull the trigger. Another way of looking at it from a different franchise's standpoint: just because certain Force abilities are favored by Dark Jedi, does that make the powers themselves evil? I think not. Powers are tools, and though one could argue that certain individuals should not be allowed to have certain powers, tools are amoral.

[Badnik Zero]

^ Lol, Star Wars. Shadow's Chaos powers are like the Force, good point. But specifically in Star Wars, aren't things like lightning and choke, or the ability to raise dead like in Palpatine's persuasive speech in Episode 3, fueled by dark desires? Palpatine was transformed (it looked like he aged) by dark energy when he went up against Samuel L. Jackson. I don't think evil Jedi use those powers just because they think they're cool. They're destructive because they're dark powers. Negative transformations in Sonic always yield a large destructive creature. So Shadow gets destructive powers when he shoots humans in ShtH. Makes sense to me.

Edited April 17, 2010 by Pinche Pitochu

[Chaos Rush]

It usually does, but this is a special case. It's apparent from early interviews that they wanted this game to have a very different world for this game compared to previous games. I believe Naka was quoted as saying that the concept was basically "What if Sonic was in the real world". Sonic 06 clearly had events take place in its past similar to those that took place during previous games, but these two sets of events don't really seem to be one and the same. They essentially took the set up that had already been done in previous games, but isn't actually a continuation of it. This wouldn't be the first time Sega did something like this. Sonic X uses a lot of the backstory from the games, but it isn't actually canon to them, nor was it meant to follow directly after anything else. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that this also happens at least once between Sonic 3 and SA2.

That's interesting. Even though I haven't played Sonic 06 (don't have a 360/PS3), I watched a playthrough on Youtube. It's kinda blatantly obvious that this game was originally meant to be called Sonic Adventure 3, because from what I can see, the game is basically Sonic Adventure with a different plot. There are MANY similarities with the Adventure titles... Sonic Adventure 3 would have been a more fitting title. According to reviews, it has glitchy physics, just like Sonic Adventure, a plot that can sometimes make no sense, and contradictions to previous stories (according to SA, Tails apparently first saw Sonic in the Mystic Ruins forest, even though it should have been West Side Island. According to Sonic Adventure 3 Sonic 06, Elise had the blue Chaos Emerald for the past 10 years).

[Turbo]

Now I always saw the chaos emeralds as something mystical rather than scientific but now that I think of it the emeralds remind me of what Doug Walker (aka The Nostalgia Critic) said about the movie The Secret of Nimh it contains three battling elements in the movie Nature, Science and the unknown. Now I don't know about nature being involved with the creation of the chaos emeralds but science and the unknown really do relate to the emeralds in my opinion.

Going by the STC mythology of how the emeralds were created, Dr. Kintobor used science to harness all the negative energy in the world into 6 emeralds, though in an accident involving a rotten egg cause some of that negative energy to escape into Dr. Kintobor thus transforming him into Dr. Robotnik.

It is quite a confusing discussion cause there are tons of different explanations for the creation of the emeralds some mystical and others being more scientific.

[Icecoldfrieza]

About Elise's blue emerald...Before Shadow and Silver travel back in time, there are currently 7 chaos emeralds in existence. When Silver gives the blue emerald from the future to Elise, there are now 8 emeralds in existence, two of them being blue. So it is indeed possible for all of the events to have occurred normally up until that point, because the blue emerald that was used until Sonic 06 was the blue emerald of the present, not the one from the future.

Problem is, Silver takes the grey emerald from the Duke to the future. DOH!!

[Saint Nathan]

Evil is not relative, except to those who subscribe to such a shaky moral code. I wonder if you meant to say something along the lines of certain acts not being inherently evil and therefore must be judged by their effects (because I would say Chaos Blast is one thing that squarely falls into that category). Anyway...

Evil IS relative, unless the evil person is a cartoon villain. Most "evil" people do not believe their actions are evil, at least in the long run, while most people would. The term is open to any interpretation, just as good is.

See, I think of "Good" as being helpful, kind to others, and in a dangerous situation, helping as many as possible. To someone else, "Good" could be simply continuing the species, or even the idea that humans are "evil" and their destruction is "good".

The only reason most people don't think this is because most people have the same "good"/"evil" views. This does not make them a certain action or thing however.

[BaronSFel001]

Evil IS relative, unless the evil person is a cartoon villain. Most "evil" people do not believe their actions are evil, at least in the long run, while most people would. The term is open to any interpretation, just as good is.

The interpretation of evil is certainly relative, but that does not mean the concept itself necessarily is. This is why I refer to relativism as a "shaky moral code": it is nothing but arbitrary. But that is beside the point. The point I wanted to make is that some things seem to be judged as inherently evil just because of their properties. Is destruction evil? I would say that depends on who or what is being destroyed. I refer back to what Rouge said in Sonic Battle about Shadow's use of his powers. Would you not agree that the Chaos Emeralds (and their powers) are amoral, not inherently good or evil? One could bring up the point of positive vs. negative energy, but as Sonic X explicity noted, certain emotions draw out certain aspects of Chaos Energy, which says nothing about the alignment of the Chaos Energy itself.

[Chaos Rush]

Edit: Woops, wrong thread.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Chaos Rush