What If Sonic Lost His Memory?

*During the events of SA2, Sonic falls to Earth in place of Shadow, sacrificing himself to save the world. With no memory of his past, Sonic sets out to uncover the truth of who he is. However, the appearance of a certain grey 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?*

## History

### Main Series

*What If Sonic Lost His Memory* started it's run on the 11th of January 2020 as the third What If series, following up the newly debuted *What If Emerl Survived* with a much wider reaching and more commonly asked question: What if instead of Shadow losing his memory after Sonic Adventure 2's conclusion, it was Sonic? This prompt is one as old as the very game it's based on and was inspired by a famous audio drama by shadow759, to the point that The Sega Scourge used it as the jumping off point of the story.

### Black Shadow: Exodus

After the conclusion of the main series, a continuation in the form of an audio drama titled *Black Shadow: Exodus* released its pilot on September 6th of 2021. It was the first audio drama-styled instalment of the *Sonic: What If?* series and the first video set in a pre-existing What-If timeline after its initial story had concluded.

## Premise

During the finale of *Sonic Adventure 2*, Sonic uses his full power during the combined Chaos Control to stop the Space Colony: ARK from crashing into Earth. By going all out without regard for his safety, Sonic was able to fully return the ARK back to it's proper place in orbit at the cost of all his energy. He fell to the planet below and crashed, filling Shadow with the resolve to protect the planet that Sonic and Maria both loved dearly.

*Black Shadow: Exodus* follows the eponymous Black Shadow after his departure into space at the end of the series finale, trying to maintain a sort of empire using the Black Arms as a force for good by intimidating evildoers into becoming farmers for the Red Fruit that can sustain his soldiers without the need for them to feast on the flesh of living beings. While suffering from eerie hallucinations and growing weary from his travels, Shadow must keep his mind together if he wants to make good on his promises to make the universe a better place.

## Characters

### Heroes

* Shadow the Hedgehog (WI03) / Black Shadow
	+ Black Arms (WI03)
		- Decoe and Bocoe (Black Arms)
* Sonic the Hedgehog (WI03) / Empire Sonic
* Miles "Tails" Prower (WI03)
* Knuckles the Echidna (WI03)
* Team Rose
	+ Amy Rose (WI03)
	+ Cream the Rabbit (WI03)
	+ Big the Cat (WI03)
* Rouge the Bat (WI03)
* E-123 Omega (WI03)
* Team Chaotix
	+ Vector the Crocodile (WI03)
	+ Espio the Chameleon (WI03)
	+ Charmy Bee (WI03)
* Vanilla the Rabbit (WI03)
* Silver the Hedgehog (WI03)

### Villains

* Eggman Empire
	+ Dr. Eggman (WI03)
	+ Metal Sonic (WI03)
	+ Sonic Androids
* Black Doom (WI03)
* Kaiser Greedy

## Reception

What If Sonic Lost His Memory has dominated each and every poll it's been featured in, always putting it at the top of the production order for a new wave of *Sonic: What If?* episodes. On the first community poll it claimed 51% of all total votes, which is the highest amount ever given to a specific series, and almost every video posted by The Sega Scourge had at least a handful of comments requesting the next instalment of the story - even if the video was unrelated to *WI03* or *Sonic: What If?* entirely.

## Trivia

* *What If Sonic Lost His Memory?* Part 2 made multiple firsts for the show as a whole.
	+ It was the first episode to use the Casino Night backdrop after the first wave of episodes used the original pale blue one.
	+ It was the first *Sonic: What If?* episode to be released using YouTube's Premiere feature, streaming the episode live at a pre-determined point for it's first showing before it became available as a regular upload.
* This What If? featured the first instance of the character Silver the Hedgehog, and is the first story to have him use time travel to appear in a game that he did not originally appear in.
* *WI03* is the first story to adapt the following games:
	+ *Sonic Heroes*
	+ *Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)*
* *WI03* is the first story to feature direct elements from *Sonic X*.
	+ The video used as a jumping off point for the series was inspired by the anime and it's explanation for why Shadow fell to Earth to begin with is used as a canon part of the story.
	+ As of *Black Shadow: Exodus*, the Metarex have made an appearance.