There's Something About series is a web series created by Mashed, centering around various alternative versions of characters from Sonic with a much more gritty and serious tone, unlike how most videos are from in the channel.
The first part, There's Something About Amy, centers around Amy Rose slowly losing her mental stability in order to try and be the perfect girl for Sonic. The first episode came out on April 28th, 2022, as the second episode came out on July 21st, the third episode released on August 5th and the fourth and final episode released (alongside the rest of the episodes) on December 16th.
The second part, There's Something About Knuckles, focuses on Knuckles as a warrior protecting a large walled off city from a giant monster with a giant robotic suits while trying to come to grips about his own self worth. The first part released December 22nd, 2022, a week after the end of There’s Something About Amy, the second part released on February 9th, 2023, the third part on March 3rd, the fourth on April 28th, the fifth on May 11th and the sixth on October 12th with the seventh part being released on December 22nd with the eighth and final part set for an unknown release date.
Not to be confused with the Something About series by Jeremy Chinshue/TerminalMontage.
Spoilers off below, beware:
Tropes that have occurred in There’s Something About Amy
- Adaptational Villainy: Amy goes through a full mental breakdown due to the experimenting on her body and her love for Sonic, as well as the manipulation by Secret Histories Tails into becoming a monster.
- Ambiguously Human: Ambiguously fox, rather. In his debut, SH!Tails seemed to only be animated the way he was because of Zeurel's art style. However, in There's Something About Amy, he displays the ability to shapeshift, something no other character in the original animation could do, raising some serious questions about what he really is.
- Arc Words: “What Are Friends For?”
- Ax-Crazy: SH!Tails' manipulation and Sonic's rejection drives Amy to this, lashing out and killing Sonic in her desperate outrage to keep him from leaving her. SH!Tails is much worse, as he's the same psychopathic fox from The Secret History of Sonic & Tails with much grander ambitions than when we last saw him.
- Big Bad: Tails, as it’s revealed in the third episode, he manipulated the events of Amy's world to increasingly drive her insane from desperation and experimented on her in order for her crumbling mental state to make her snap, and kill Sonic in a fit of hysteria. It is then revealed further that this isn’t even the real Tails native to this timeline, rather, he's the serial killing sadist version of Tails from Secret Histories.
- Body Horror: In "There's Something About Amy Part 2" we get to see the results of her body surgery from Part 1. Her arms and legs look like they were cut apart and crudely stitched back together to make her taller. Her arms have rings of scar tissue around them. And the surgery did no wonders for her crumbling sanity, either. Not to mention, it's caused her immense pain.
- Break the Cutie: Poor, poor Amy. She was manipulated and then experimented on turned her into a mentally scarred abused girl who was relapsed into insanity by the conniving Tails from the Secret Histories universe.
- Canon Character All Along: The seemingly supportive Tails who tries to do everything in his power to drive Amy and Sonic apart is revealed to be none other than his Secret Histories counterpart.
- The Chessmaster: Surprisingly, despite his seemingly unhinged obsessiveness, SH!Tails is a clever manipulator, managing to drive both Sonic and Amy apart from each other despite the mutual love they both share, and manages to drive Amy's mental deterioration to the point of accidentally killing Sonic during a mental breakdown.
- Darker and Edgier: As a stark contrast towards the Mashed products, TSAA is played dead straight, with only a few comedic moments at the beginning of the story, as we see Amy's psyche destroyed by the manipulative SH!Tails.
- Dead All Along: Turns out that the Tails in Amy’s Universe was killed in the beginning from the house's explosion, and replaced by Tails from Secret Histories.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Before the events of the series, Secret History Tails murdered his alternate self and took on his identity as a disguise.
- Deconstructive Parody: Of
Ron the Death Eater stories, specifically with how Amy's detractors commonly depict her as a Yandere Stalker with a Crush towards Sonic. Initially, the story starts off with her acting very much like she does in the series proper: pushy with her affection, but hardly threatening towards him. However, Tails manipulates her into a Sanity Slippage, which culminates in her Body Horror transformation and murder of Sonic. From this point, the story deviates from the typical Revenge Fic when it reveals that Sonic actually did love Amy back, but couldn't reciprocate his feelings; he too was manipulated by Tails in the exact same way. Furthermore, the "Tails" responsible for this series of events is not the real Tails of this timeline, but the one seen in "Secret Histories"; the latter had murdered the former prior to the story. This effectively states that, in order for Amy to be truly unhinged, it would require influence from beyond what her series is normally capable of, and that it would lead to tragedy for everyone involved. - Downer Ending: SH!Tails manages to manipulate Amy and make her relapse into insanity and they flee to find a universe with the “real” Sonic, all while destroying the previous world via the machine, clearly not boding well for anyone who dare get in their way…
- Foreshadowing:
- Throughout Part 3, there are hints to Tails' true identity:
- He doesn't react to Sonic's death as one would expect from him, instead focusing more on the consequences.
- When laughing about how Amy and Sonic could have been together, and when later denouncing Sonic, his teeth are drawn as segmented, uneven and yellow.
- He tells Amy he knew about Sonic's feelings because he's his best friend.
- Just before Amy finds the original Tails' decaying head, he outright says that the person Amy killed wasn't Sonic, but an impostor. He even changes to his real voice when shouting "HE'S NOT SONIC!"
- There's even a bit of foreshadowing in Part 1, where Tails says this..."Tails": You could say I'm my own worst enemy!
- In the first episode, Sonic always seems to be one step ahead of Amy's strategies and in the second, he doesn't seem reactive when she breaks in his house. That's because he was suggested similar advices from Tails and he actually expected the chili dog dinner as the opportunity to score with Amy, explaining why he was particularly shocked by her transformation.
- Throughout Part 3, there are hints to Tails' true identity:
- Hate Sink: Secret Histories Tails, despite his hammy moments, completely negates his much more laughable qualities in Secret Histories, as he manipulates and psychologically tortures Amy to the point of her murdering Sonic, and once revealing himself, manages to get Amy back onto his side and travel with her to other universes to find their Sonic, while destroying her previous world along the way.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Implied. It’s said by SH!Tails to Amy his main goal is to find the “Real” Sonic, which fits into when we last saw him in his first appearance, disappearing to finding the real Sonic, however, the fourth episode seems to imply an even more nefarious plan, actively being annoyed with Amy pestering him about finding Sonic and his big villain speech seems to imply wanting to give some sort of order to the massive chaos in the universe.
- Jerkass: Subverted for Sonic. While seeming like a ungrateful jerk for constantly rejecting Amy and not appreciating her efforts, it’s revealed that Sonic does love Amy after all, but he’s simply too scared to face his feelings, thus uses his cocky attitude to hide it. It doesn't help that he was manipulated by an impostor posing as his best friend.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Amy goes through this after accidentally murdering Sonic during her mental episode, cradling his corpse as she cries in distress.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Seemingly inverted at first, as Tails during his reveal is painted as an extremely clever manipulator, however, when it’s immediately revealed exactly WHO he is, he shows off to be completely unhinged and ax-crazy. However, this is seemingly played straight again, as it appears that this is also a mask, hiding a sophisticated side to him as he still manages to manipulate Amy through his words.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Very heavily implied with Secret Histories Tails. It is heavily implied that SH!Tails' obsession with Sonic has lead him to a point where he has become willing to destroy every single world where Sonic exists and create one where everything is fit for him. It doesn't help that SH!Tails' portal seems to not just be made to take him and Amy to other worlds, but also to drain them.
- Poor Communication Kills: Exploited by SH!Tails, as he gives advice to both Sonic and Amy to keep them apart and drive Amy to desperate measures to get Sonic to reciprocate her love. Sonic did love Amy back, but could never get himself to say it, something SH!Tails is all too happy to rub in Amy's face once its far too late.
- Sanity Slippage: Amy slowly goes through this, becoming a psychotic shell of her former self.
- Wham Line:Tails: I told you... (Tails's body shifts with a series of sickening cracks before he steps out of the shadows to reveal the Tails from Secret Histories!) I'M SONIC'S BEST FRIEND!!!
- Yandere: Amy after her complete mental breakdown, becoming obsessed to find the “real” Sonic who will love her.
Tropes that have occurred in There’s Something About Knuckles
- Alternate Universe: Appears to take place in one compared to the previous series, with a more medieval setting (albeit with mechs), a different and more serious version of Amy, and Sonic suffers a different fate.
- Ambiguously Evil: While this version of Tails seems to be a very helpful person who helps Knuckles out with his insecurities, it is hard to not see him as nefarious due to what happened before with TSAA, and his “What Are Friends For” line. He is conveniently the only one who knows what happened to Sonic as well and was around before the monsters began attacking, so either he's the real deal or he’s really just SH Tails biding his time once more.
- And I Must Scream: Implied, as it seems that Sonic was infused with The Titan, with Tails even stating that he was "gone, not dead".
- Bait-and-Switch Silhouette: When what seems to be Sonic grabs the pilot of Knuckles's mech out, the smoke blocks out his silhouette, seeming to be Knuckles at first. But then the blue mech brings the pilot closer, revealing it's actually Silver, just that his top quills were blocked off by his helmet. Then it's revealed that Knuckles is actually piloting the blue mech.
- Body Horror: Eggman. When he is seen in the 4th and 5th episodes, he is not looking good, glowing green from his eyes and mouth, and looking like a corpse, and then it’s revealed that the Chaos Emeralds are in his eyes.
- Child Soldier: Just like in canon, Cream is still just a kid, but fights alongside the adult characters. While she seems to handle the fighting itself pretty well and is even level-headed enough to apply first aid to her wounded teammates, all the stress has an obvious negative impact on her. She constantly shakes and looks like she's about to cry.
- Citadel City: The setting is a giant fortified city where the people hide in fear from The Titan.
- Colourful Theme Naming: The team's mechs are all named on their own colors. Sonic's mech is called Blue, Knuckle's mech is called red, Amy's mech is called pink and so on.
- Deconstructive Parody: Just like how it did with Amy in TSAA, TSAK is one for Knuckles and his rivalry with Sonic. In here, Knuckles is in the position of being The Hero that Sonic holds. But not only it came at the cost of Sonic's life in the first place, his overall temperament as The Brute makes him loathed by his teammates, who correctly view him as an inferior replacement of a leader. All this just serves to instead plunge him into a pit of self-doubt, forcing him to drink away his sorrows and the occasional mocking inner voice.
- Decoy Protagonist: The first episode has an introductory monologue given by a deep, gritty voice explaining the dire stakes of this world, with only one hero left to save everyone... Jet the Hawk. Of course, he's crushed to death less than a minute later as one of the first victims of the Titan's siege, with the other two Babylon Rogues seen mourning his death later.
- Failed a Spot Check: In the opening act, Jet somehow manages to fail to notice the giant monster advancing until it is right in front of the city's walls. This gets him killed shortly after.
- Fast Tunneling: Tails' mech has a drill in the front, which makes transportation a breeze.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: You can see in the graveyard that Rouge, Vanilla, Mighty and Tekno are among the dead when the telescope pans over to it.
- Good Is Not Nice: While Knuckles is a rude and extremely strict leader who will insult and fire his members, it is shown he is an extremely stressed leader who feels unable to hold up a candle next to Sonic, and is trying to keep the entire city alive.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Baron Robotnik. He infused himself with the chaos power and tricked Sonic into getting infused with it himself. Even with him being dead in the present, his impact is still present through the Titan that was once Sonic terrorizing the city.
- Humongous Mecha: Knuckles, Amy, Silver (who is later replaced with Blaze), Tails, Big and Cream all operate mecha suits of themselves to protect the city. The mechs weren't always that big, but once the kaijus started showing up, Tails worked on making them more suitable for fighting them.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: With Big killed, Amy tries to reach out to Sonic, who is still in the titan. As the Sonic she knows would never hurt any of his friends. It almost works, and it would have if Knuckles hadn't been so reckless and became a Kaiju himself due to his smashed communications preventing him from knowing about it.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Deconstructed with Knuckles. While all of his criticisms are valid as any failure is the difference between life and death, be it for the ones on the frontlines and/or the civilians, the harsh delivery makes him look like a bully kicking someone while they are down which causes friction between the defenders.
- Kaiju: The Titan, a giant malevolent being that tries to destroy the entire walled off city. Later revealed to be Sonic himself heavily mutated by chaos energy. Before it was Sonic, it was Eggman.
- Mech vs. Beast: Knuckles and the group attacks and defends the City against the giant Titan monster attacking it on a daily basis.
- One-Winged Angel: after being submerged in the lava, The Titan transforms, and becomes more of a challenge than it's ever been. The Titan could adapt to every thing the heroes could throw at it and has laser eyes.
- Tank Goodness: Big's mech is a tank, that has a lot of firepower, and is faster than it looks.
- The Reveal: The creator of the Titan is revealed to be Eggman, who took the power of the Chaos emerald in order to destroy Sonic and his friends and everything they built. Sonic ejects the chaos power from Eggman and gets it infused into himself, thus becoming the Titan.
- Save the Villain: Sonic gives Baron Robotnik the antidote to his condition, as he can't bring himself to leave the villain to die an excruciating death. Robotnik was counting on this, as he didn't have an antidote, but a deadly chemical. The infection of the Chaos Emeralds would then transfer to Robotnik's killer, Sonic.
- Transformation Horror: Sonic got infused with the Chaos power that left Eggman, and it overtook his mind and sanity and transformed him into the (second) Titan.
- The Voiceless: So far, Big and Blaze have not uttered a word in this series.
