Fanfic / What If Sonic Lost His Memory?

The Sonic You Knew is Gone

What If Sonic Lost His Memory? is a Sonic the Hedgehog What If? fanfic by The Sega Scourge as part of his Sonic: What If? series of videos. This particular story, comprised of five main parts along with an "Episode Shadow" side-plot, began on January 11th, 2020 and ended on May 31st, 2021.

In the finale of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog selflessly sacrificed himself in order to save the Earth from the ARK's impact. An amnesiac Shadow returned in Sonic Heroes, whereby he attempted to piece together the fragments of his past.

But what if the same set of circumstances had happened to Sonic instead? What if Sonic fell in Shadow's place? How would he fair with no memory of his friends, his adventures, and his legendary status?

In this story, however, the strange appearance of a certain white hedgehog spells looming disaster for the future of Sonic's world. What could this disaster be? And how does it tie to the amnesiac Sonic?

Now has a character page that needs love.

The playlist for this "What If?" can be found here. Following its conclusion and in the same vein as another what-if video series, an audio drama sequel called Black Shadow: Exodus has been announced by The Sega Scourge, with the pilot episode available here.

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Tropes for What If Sonic Lost His Memory?

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Due to For Want Of A Nail, Silver debuts immediately following the events of Sonic Heroes instead of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While just as stoic and serious in this timeline, Shadow is much more approachable thanks to not losing his memory and maintaining the character development he had in Sonic Adventure 2, and (albeit in a more professional manner) willingly teams up with Tails and Knuckles during the Sonic Heroes arc to fill the void left by the blue hedgehog. When learning of Eggman's next plot, he urges Silver to join the other heroes and even expresses guilt for not being the one to suffer what Sonic's been going through.
  Shadow: It's all because he fell instead of me. In saving my life, he conferred a value onto it. I want to return that value to him.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Just like in Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, Eggman clandestinely uses a character presumed to be dead as the basis for an android army, but here he uses Sonic instead of Shadow. Sonic's question to Eggman about whether he's one of the Sonic Androids is also identical to Shadow's from the Neutral route of his self-titled game.
  • In a more dramatic sense, Shadow expresses with regret that things would've been better for everyone if he took the brunt of the ARK incident instead of Sonic, given the greater amount of relationships and responsibility that only Sonic would've been truly able to maintain. Later, when Black Shadow inflicts a flashback to said ARK incident on "Empire" Sonic, the hedgehog misreads it as the moment when Shadow left him for dead, and contemptuously asserts that Shadow should've fallen in his place.
  • Prior to his final fight with Black Shadow, "Empire" Sonic gives an I Am What I Am speech akin to the ones Shadow gave from each ending of his game.
  • Black Shadow's would-be Pre-Mortem One-Liner of "Goodbye, doctor!" in the finale is also from Shadow the Hedgehog, in the endings where Shadow faces the Egg Dealer and kills Eggman afterwards.
• Another Side, Another Story: "Episode Shadow" (named after the Sonic Forces DLC scenario) tells the story of what Shadow was doing in Parts 3 and 4, namely his search for the Chaos Emeralds and dealing with the Black Arms invasion.
• Arc Welding: Frontier Canyon, a stage from Sonic Rivals 2, is treated as the same desert seen in the opening cutscene for Team Sonic in Sonic Heroes. It's also where the battle against the Sonic Androids takes place.
• Bad Future: The one Silver comes from has been ravaged by the Sonic Androids, monstrous machines with the sole directive of exterminating all life. After two hundred years, anyone who could fight back against them has been killed, and the world only has pockets of survivors remaining. In a last-ditch effort, these survivors collected the Chaos Emeralds to create a one-way time machine, with Silver chosen as the one to travel to the past and change history due to being the planet's strongest fighter. While this future only applies to Sonic's world, the slaughtering of the main cast would've also doomed Earth as it would also have no one to protect it from threats such as the Black Arms or Solaris.
• Bittersweet Ending: Albeit a tad more on the "sweet" side. Sonic's memories have been restored, the Eggman Empire and Black Arms are defeated, and the Bad Future Silver came from has been successfully averted. However, Metal Sonic is still at large, and Black Shadow has decided to leave Sonic and his friends and go back into space with the Black Arms (with Eggman as their prisoner), ultimately rendering Sonic's original sacrifice to give Shadow a chance at experiencing life for himself null and void. However, Black Shadow gives the heroes a pager in the event that they may ever need his help.
• But Now I Must Go: After Sonic's memories are restored, the Sonic Androids are completely anihilated, and Doctor Eggman has been condemned to a Hellhole Prison aboard the Black Comet, Black Shadow departs from Mobius, as there is no place for destructive creatures like the Black Arms. However, before departing, Black Shadow gives Sonic a homing beacon that, when activated, will bring Black Shadow running back to Sonic's world.
• Canon Immigrant: While nothing from the games exists to contradict them, the GUN Commander's name ("Abraham Tower") and the idea of the Black Arms being a hive-minded race originate from the Archie continuity both pre- and post-reboot as opposed to explicitly being concepts from Shadow the Hedgehog proper. This also applies to Mount Freedom, the GUN Fortress' location.
• Criminal Amnesiac: Sonic (who's already in the page image, humorously enough) is tricked into joining the Eggman Empire as a result of the doctor's deceit.
• Deus Exit Machina: Shadow is absent during Parts 3 and 4. While this is justified in-story as him having to deal with this timeline's version of Shadow the Hedgehog, it also removes him from the initial Sonic Android battle and prevents him from helping the heroes end it as quickly.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Sonic experiences occasional flashes of his past, particularly the battles he's fought with or against Knuckles and Shadow. Without full context, however, Sonic interprets these as them still being on the opposing side to him, which Eggman uses to sway Sonic by saying that Shadow attacked him and left him for dead. However, when experiencing flashes of the battle against Knuckles in Hidden Palace, Sonic does briefly recall the mural on the wall portraying the opposition between two figures that look like him and Eggman, though Metal Sonic attacks him before he can properly evaluate this.
• Enemy Mine: Metal Sonic, having been thrown out, is forced to work together with Tails and his friends after Sonic joins Eggman. Eggman is overjoyed at learning this, having told Sonic that Metal was on the heroes' side anyway.
• Evil Costume Switch: Both main hedgehogs receive one in the story:
  • Sonic dons a new Eggman-inspired outfit once tricked into joining the doctor, wearing a pair of white, yellow and grey elbow-length gloves and a large pair of knee-length white, red and grey boots with the Eggman Empire's logo emblazoned on them.
  • Shadow has his eyes turn yellow-orange and gain slitted pupils as a result of Black Doom giving him the power to command the Black Arms (creating "Black Shadow" in the process). Once Black Doom is killed off, Shadow takes on his robe and other clothing articles as mementos for the coming battle.
• Hellhole Prison: After Sonic stops Black Shadow from killing Doctor Eggman in cold blood, Black Shadow, knowing that turning him over to the authorities with Metal Sonic MIA is just asking for the doctor to escape custody and continue the cycle that has been going on for far too long, condemns the scientist to this fate aboard the Black Comet, where he would be kept under guard by the Black Arms, who would tear the doctor to shreds if he so much as breathes in a way that displeases Black Shadow.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the climax of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow ponders removing his inhibitor rings and using his full power to restore the ARK to its typical orbit (which, as per Sonic X, is considered why he "died" in the source material). However, Sonic rebukes this and pulls this off instead, wanting to give Shadow the opportunity to finally live a full life of his own.
• Heroic Willpower: Turned on its head here, due to the hero in question being a Criminal Amnesiac. Sonic's steadfast attitude and innate ability to resist certain influences (Dark Gaia, for instance) is what prevents him from easily having his memories restored by the heroes, even when Black Shadow attempts to use the Chaos Emeralds or the Black Arms' telepathic abilities (the latter of which does succeed, mind you).
• Hive Queen: Shadow manages to get Black Doom to trust him with joint control of the Black Arms' hive-mind, becoming Black Shadow in the process. He (unintentionally) receives sole status as this when he backstabs and destroys Black Doom, and then decides to use the Black Arms as his counter-measure for Eggman's army.
• I Am What I Am: After Black Shadow attempts to tell "Empire" Sonic that he's been fed lies by Dr. Eggman one time too many for the hedgehog, Sonic responds with this:
  "Empire" Sonic: I am Sonic Android. The ultimate battle life-form created by Dr. Eggman. I was born to help the doc save this world, and bring its people onto a better path, free of tyrannical lunatics like you! That is who I am!
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The final battle of the story is this, with Shadow trying to get Sonic to remember his true identity, up to using the Chaos Emeralds to go Super in hopes of reminding him. However, this fails, and Sonic going Super forces Shadow to fight. After their brutal super fight ends with them falling back to earth, Shadow makes one last-ditch effort by using his wound to mix with Sonic's blood through his forehead wound in hopes of using Black Doom's vision sharing powers to show Sonic the truth. It works.
• In Medias Res: Part 3 begins with Silver's explanation to the good guys as a framing device, showing how he and Shadow found the Sonic Androids a week before. It then returns to the heroes trying to devise a way to stop the Androids.
• Ironic Echo: This exchange when Amnesiac!Sonic and Shadow meet in Lost Jungle, acting as one to the final race between Sonic and Shadow on the ARK.
  Sonic: So there's more to you than just looking like me. What are you, anyway?
  Shadow: What? You mean you don't remember?
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Eggman expresses that he can restore Sonic's memory, but plans to wait until after the hedgehog fulfills his plans. By that point, Sonic will suffer guilt upon realizing what he's done, allowing Eggman to swiftly off the hedgehog once and for all.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Just like with Shadow in the canon timeline, Sonic isn't directly informed of his past by Rouge, as she wants to withhold that info until she feels the time is right. It's rather heavily deconstructed in this story, however, as this, combined with Omega's offscreen destruction of the androids that just happened to have his appearance, only makes Sonic resent her and the rest of his old allies even more, with him interpreting them as trying to hide the truth from him for their own purposes. And while Eggman's explanation to Sonic of his past and purpose is fabricated, it's still a more satisfying answer than what Sonic's had from the heroes, which convinces the hedgehog to join the Eggman Empire.
• Manipulative Bastard: Dr. Eggman's in top form here. First he uses the amnesiac Sonic's paranoia and a cover story that he's the Super Prototype to his Sonic Androids to persuade the hedgehog into joining the Eggman Empire, under the pretense that it's for the good of the world. Then he exploits Metal Sonic's hatred towards his organic self to further a cover story that he's a creation of Tails meant to destroy the androids, which works wonders when Metal is forced to do an Enemy Mine with the heroes. Lastly, he takes Silver's knowledge about the future and uses it to lure the heroes into one of his bunkers and promptly spring a trap for them when they arrive. It's too bad he didn't expect the Black Arms getting in the way of things.
• Mêlée à Trois: A three-way fight briefly ensues between Sonic, Metal Sonic and Knuckles in Part 4 after Metal Sonic attempts to kill his fleshy counterpart, violating the terms of his and the heroes' truce.
• The Mole: As a result of not having his main counterpart's conflicted sense of purpose, Shadow doesn't for a second consider actually becoming a champion for Black Doom, instead deciding to contact the GUN Commander and become the military's man on the inside. He even manages to get Black Doom to trust him with joint control of the Black Arms hive-mind.
• Mythology Gag:
  • This story's original basis is a fan-made audio drama called "What if? Sonic Died? And Shadow Lived?". And just like it, Super Sonic prevents Super Shadow from dying by attacking him out of the way, a reversal of what happened during the finale of Sonic X.
  • Sonic's physical appearance when uses Sonic Fever (the Sonic Androids' counterpart to Shadow Fever) has his eyes and body glow blue with electric energy, just like his film counterpart does when tapping into his full power.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • As a result of Silver arriving on the Final Fortress and telling the heroes of the risk the Sonic Androids pose, Eggman infers that Silver must know where all the bunkers for them are due to his knowledge of the future, and would likely bring all of Sonic's concerned friends to one of them... making it ridiculously easy to destroy them all at once. And while Metal's allegiance with the heroes was unexpected of him, it still lines up with the story he told Sonic.
  • Super Black Shadow first attempts to use the Chaos Emeralds' energies to restore Sonic's memories. It backfires spectacularly: as Sonic's been given the backstory that Shadow "left him for dead", he interprets the recollection of the ARK battle and his supposed death as confirmations of such. And then he siphons Super Black Shadow's Chaos energy.
• One-Man Army:
  • During the Sonic Android battle, Omega takes out most of Eggman's flagship on his own.
  • As a villainous example, we have Sonic working under the Eggman Empire, especially after being imbued with Sonic Fever. He immediately curb-stomps Metal Sonic, knocks away all the heroes at once, and nearly kills Tails. Later gets flipped back to a heroic example when his memory is restored, and he and Black Shadow reduce the Sonic Android army to scrap.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Through a combination of his amnesia, Rouge's failure to tell him of his past and Silver's odd interruption, Sonic completely loses his cheerfulness and laid-back attitude, becoming more scornful and prone to aggression as a result. Even his fighting style becomes more aggressive, with the hedgehog not holding back anymore.
• Poor Communication Kills: Big time. Rouge's failure to tell Sonic of his past (or inform his friends of his amnesia) leads to Sonic becoming the Eggman Empire's strongest asset.
• Role Swap Plot: The point of this "What If" story, swapping Sonic and Shadow's places at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and the entirety of Sonic Heroes, with Shadow joining Tails and Knuckles' "Team Hero" and Sonic joining Rouge and Omega's "Team Dark Blue". From the end of Heroes onwards, however, the story then shifts towards an alternative arc about the Sonic Android threat and Sonic joining Eggman.
  • In a more subtle way, this trope also counts from a narrative perspective: Shadow plays the righteous hero of the story as a result of gaining a new lease on life and keeping his development from Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic instead plays the role of the conflicted, aggressive antagonist as a result of losing his memory and the frustration and paranoia towards the heroes that came as a result of it.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Silver's mission as per usual, and this time it's to prevent the massive destruction caused by the Sonic Androids. Having learned this, Eggman uses Silver's claim to convince Sonic that the world will take a turn for the worse if he doesn't join him.
• Sequel Hook: Despite Doctor Eggman becoming a prisoner aboard the Black Comet, resulting in a true era of peace for Sonic and his friends (perhaps he'll finally settle down with Amy). However, Metal Sonic is unaccounted for, although Metal's damaged state and the current status of Eggman likely means he won't be an actual threat for quite some time.
• Shout-Out: As noted by The Sega Scourge, yes, Silver (himself already an Expy of Trunks) is indeed traveling back in time to prevent super-powered "androids" from devastating the future.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Rouge isn't given a huge role in the story once it diverges strongly enough from the main timeline, but her poor communication on the subject of Sonic's situation is why said divergence (Sonic becoming Eggman's new champion) occurs in the first place.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The Black Arms, as a result of Black Shadow's existence, don't die along with Black Doom, nor does the Black Comet get obliterated by the Eclipse Cannon as Black Shadow aims to use the aliens as tools to counter the Sonic Androids. This trope still sticks after the final battle, as Black Shadow decides to take the Black Arms back into space rather than finish them off, seeing their utility in possibly righting the wrongs their kind have committed across the universe (albeit in a more pragmatic sense as opposed to an idealistic one, they're too innately aggressive to be properly reformed). That, and also using them to guard Dr. Eggman's prison cell to prevent him from causing more problems.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Compared to the more empathetic Tails, Knuckles isn't as lenient towards Shadow following Sonic's death, often butting heads with him during the Sonic Heroes arc.
  • The same also applies to Metal when he joins the heroes, due to the already existing animosity between them all, and his desire to destroy Sonic regardless of circumstance getting in the way of their rescue mission.
  • The GUN Commander's long-seated grudge against Shadow's existence makes him very hesitant to allow the hedgehog to act as his mole for the Black Arms, only putting any trust in him because Maria did back when she was alive.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Metal Sonic is unable to stop himself from wanting to return to Eggman despite being cast out and almost destroyed by his creator. He is also unable to curb his bloodlust for Sonic, despite the fact that they should technically be on the same side under the Eggman Empire.
• Unwitting Pawn: Eggman plays the amnesiac Sonic like a fiddle, tricking him into working for him.
• The Worf Effect: At the end of Part 4, several beams of light from the Black Arms take down a sizable chunk of Eggman's fleet.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Thanks to now having the real deal at his beck and call, Dr. Eggman pulls this on Metal Sonic, telling Sonic that he was a creation of Tails. He also plans to do this to Sonic himself once he has killed all of his friends.

Tropes specific to Black Shadow: Exodus (note that spoilers for the what-if video series are unmarked here)

• Hannibal Lecture: During their little "chat" in the pilot, Eggman torments Shadow about how his very existence as a being of Chaos energy makes him a perfect Doom Magnet (citing Maria's death, Sonic's fall to evil and the Black Arms' invasion) and then implies that choosing to travel the universe alone will only drive him mad from isolation:
  Eggman: Y'know, you never told me… the true reason you came here to see me. Be honest, you're lonely, aren't you? An entire army at your command, and yet no one to even talk to. Who knows how many light-years away we are from anyone you'd call a friend. So tell me, oh mighty Black Shadow… who's the real prisoner aboard this rock!?
• Mythology Gag: Eggman nicknames the two Black Warriors watching his cell "Decoe" and "Bocoe".
  Eggman: …They're not much for conversation, sadly.