Our Villain Protagonist.
I never thought that something so wrong could feel so right.
I never thought that something so right could feel so wrong.
I never thought that something so right could feel so wrong.
— Arc Words of the story
Where Was My Hero...?
is a Sonic What If? story about what would have happened if Tails hadn't met Sonic and grown up without him.
As the story shows, things go From Bad to Worse.
The author is YouTuber MercyBhk, it was published on Dec 30, 2018, it's a Tragedy/Drama with some shades of Action-Adventure and it's published as a YouTube video comprised of fan comic drawings. An Interquel was in development, with the first part being uploaded in 2021, however Mercy took down her accounts shortly afterwards for unknown reasons.
Where Was My Hero...? contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Miles Prower as a result of different events than canon. There he's The Lancer, here he's the main villain.
- Alternate Universe: Early in the video, a narrator presents the events of this story as part of the Sonic series's Multiverse Theory cosmology.
- Animal Motifs: Spiders are associated with Miles because he's an Evil Genius and because of his weapon.
- Antagonist in Mourning: Sonic's role here is the Hero Antagonist, and he watches as two of his enemies die in this story.
- There's a flashback in the middle of the story where Sonic has a horrified expression when he sees Eggman's corpse, and incredulously calls out to him.
- Sonic mourns Miles's death on-screen, calling him Tails, as if he subconsciously knew of the canon timeline and how things shouldn't be this way.
- Anti-Hero: Tails tries to become a hero, but it doesn't work out. This is because, while his intentions were genuine, Miles's "methods" of dealing with Eggman didn't agree with Sonic's morals.
- Arc Words: Mirroring sentences are used to characterize the hero and villain of this story; "I never thought that something so wrong/right could feel so right/wrong." The first time it's spoken by Miles as he burns down his hometown, the second time it's spoken by Sonic as he mourns Miles's death.
- Ax-Crazy: Miles is psychotic, deranged, unhinged and has a love for the Slasher Smile and Nightmare Face tropes.
- Big Bad: Miles, a few readers were shocked and disturbed by how he makes a better villain than Eggman. He's the one Sonic and co. oppose in this timeline and the mastermind behind what is heavily implied to be the destruction of several (at least one is confirmed, the others are ambiguous) cities.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: A truly chilling one, upon hitting both the Despair Event Horizon AND the Rage-Breaking Point at practically the same time, the story's Big Bad loses it and murders the pair of bullies responsible in a brutal display of primal fury before going back to his hated hometown and putting it to the torch ala Sephiroth, next scene, he's a world consuming Tragic Villain.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Miles starts developing these as the story progresses which is first shown in the scene where he adopts a bird and it becomes worse when he's a teenager.
- Darker and Edgier: Oh, so much... Although considering that this story is an Alternate Universe where Miles becomes the villain due to not meeting Sonic much earlier in this universe.
- Despair Event Horizon: Miles crosses it at the same time with Rage-Breaking Point when his pet bird dies, this is by the way the culmination of years of loneliness and emotional abuse.
- Enfant Terrible: Inverted at first, but his Start of Darkness happens when he's ten, meaning that Miles was only a child when he became a mass murderer and burned down his village.
- Eye Scream: Sonic loses an eye to Miles in this timeline and the one responsible for it jokingly threatens to take the other one.
- Eviler than Thou: Miles ended up being even worse than Eggman. In fact, when he witnessed him and Sonic fighting, Miles decided to kill the doctor in an effort to help Sonic. But being rejected only proceeded to make him more and more psychotic as he brought out more destruction to the world around him.
- For Want of a Nail: What starts the Disaster Dominoes is Tails tripping on a stone that happened to be there. When even a small stone is capable of making the world be FUBAR, you know the butterfly effect sucks.
- Foul Fox: Miles unfortunately ends up becoming one, what with the whole "destroying his village, killing Eggman and programming his robots to kill non-combatants" schtick.
- Hope Spot: Despite all the bullying that Miles suffers, he spots an injured bird one day and tends to his wounds. Eventually, we see a montage of Miles happily spending time with the bird, who serves as his Living Emotional Crutch. And then that peace is forever destroyed when the pair of bullies accidentally kill it. This finally shatters Miles' psyche, driving him to kill the bullies and burn down his own village.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Miles dies after Sonic rams the former's own tendril through his chest.
- Ironic Echo: The Arc Words. The first time they're spoken with demented glee by Miles as he burns down his much hated home village, the second time with deep sorrow by Sonic as he laments how everything unfolded.
- Mad Scientist: While he was always good at making machines, Miles Prower starts making weapons and a Killer Robot army to help him in his plans after he becomes a villain.
- My Greatest Failure: Sonic regrets not being able to save Miles from the despair and suffering he went through.I wish I had been there for you earlier as a hero, everything would be different... I never thought that something so right could feel so wrong.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Miles eventually develops these tendencies after being sent to prison. He's not shown killing anyone but his explicit goal is to destroy his "unfair planet" and he programs his robots to kill every single person they meet, even if said "targets" are just children or other civilians running away. He eventually gets better.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: The first half of the story is a long explanation on how Miles's mind slowly breaks under the strain of everyone constantly tormenting him.
- Slasher Smile: Miles sports a bloodthirsty grin almost constantly as a teen. Crosses over slightly with Nightmare Face as he also has visible dark circles in his eyes, as if he hasn't been getting enough sleep.
- Suicide by Cop: Miles willingly lets Sonic, his Arch-Enemy who invaded his lair on a self given quest to stop him, lethally stab him at the end of their fight. Why he became a Death Seeker isn't really explained, but it's implied to be the emotional exhaustion he had to carry his whole life.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Sonic has this principle, as no matter how vile Eggman is, he was still horrified when he found the good doctor dead and gave Miles a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech after finding out he was the killer.
- Tears of Remorse: Sonic sheds these after Miles' death, lamenting on the fact that he could have been there for Miles when he was bullied by everyone in his village.
- Teens Are Monsters: Much of Miles's onscreen villainy happens while he's around 16-18 years old.
- While their exact age is anyone's guess, the two bullies who kill Miles' pet bird appear to border this and Enfant Terrible.
- Tragic Villain: Villain Protagonist Miles Prower. An orphan who was bullied not by one or two people, but his entire hometown, and this goes uninterrupted for years, to the point where he starts to shave his body (More specifically, his tails) in a way that has disturbing parallels to Self-Harm in a failed attempt to fit in better. One day he adopts a pet bird and makes him his Living Emotional Crutch but his tormentors accidentally kill it while bullying him. This sets him down the path of evil, but not before taking revenge on his hometown. After that is done Miles tries to become an Anti-Hero, killing Eggman because he wanted to help Sonic and show everyone how special he is, but is rejected by Sonic (who tells him he's nothing), and he gets thrown in prison, which he escapes after deciding to become an Omnicidal Maniac, at the time of the story, Miles is destroying a city, heavily implied to be one of many, and fights Sonic, but, tired of living, decides to commit Suicide by Cop by allowing Sonic to kill him. To give the reader one last kick in the teeth, he starts reminiscing about Fond Memories That Could Have Been as he's dying, made all the more tragic by the fact that these memories do occur, in the canon timeline.. In the end, even Sonic acknowledges him as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and bitterly mourns his death.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Miles used to be the canon Tails, whose one of the biggest Nice Guys in the Sonic series, he was kind enough to help a random hurt bird and restrained enough to not fight back against the people hurting him, one Trauma Conga Line and a Start of Darkness later, he's a psychotic, bitter, and broken fox.
- Villain Protagonist: Miles Prower begins the story as someone to be pitied, but he eventually snaps when enduring abuse becomes too much and he goes on an 8-year-long rampage starting with his hometown.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Following the accidental death of his Living Emotional Crutch pet bird, Miles jumps off the slippery slope and bludgeons his bullies to death with a nearby branch before setting his hometown ablaze, watching as it and everyone inside said village, burns to the ground.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Miles wouldn't even be a villain if someone had shown him love, or at least a little emotional support and guidance down the right path, but no one did, all he has in in his head are memories of being hurt and hated by everyone he's met and of himself lashing out, hating and hurting back. Sonic even holds himself accountable for that in the denouement.
Miles... no, I mean... Tails.
