Sonic Legacy - JUDGEMENT (Black Doom)

Alright, so I'm procrastinating a little bit on my commissions, but still working on them steadily! I keep getting inspiration to design new characters, as you saw in my previous submission. This one's another one that I randomly got the inspiration to create.

So anyways, something I always enjoy doing is taking a common idea in the Sonic fandom and then attempting to add my own fresh spin on the idea. In this case, I was recently inspired to have a go at designing my own "Mobian Black Doom", something I've always found very amusing! Though, instead of just taking Black Doom's details and then changing them into a Shadow the Hedgehog-like manner like many others have, with my design here I wanted to be a bit different and put focus on Doom's Eye rather than the physical Black Doom himself (in my Sonic Expanse continuity, I go about explaining that the Doom's Eye is the actual entity known as "Black Doom", and Doom's physical body is a host body that he was using). So using that logic, Black Doom here is represented in a manner more similar to his Eye.

Obviously designing started off with the head in an attempt to take Doom's Eye's features and turning them into a Mobian-esque quill design. I've made his species here a Tenrec rather than a Hedgehog (though the only distinguishable feature is the very slightly longer ears and the adjusted muzzle/nose area) to draw reference to Shadow's prototype species (I find it fitting that his "father" takes on that form, since he was before him chronologically). After doing the head, I really didn't have much in mind for a body, since it didn't really seem appropriate to try and give a body to Doom's Eye, who lacks a body itself-- So I just decided to make it a floating head, haha! The attachments I've made from the neck down are a combination of an over-sized version of Shadow's Inhibitor Ring (also, borrowing the Mephiles-esque colour scheme), and an Artificial Chaos spinal cord (I imagine in full usage, he would manifest a body made of Black Arms goo/liquid in an Artificial Chaos-esque manner).

Despite being a random design, I actually ended up coming up with a story-relevant use for it, and I've decided to feature it in my Sonic Legacy: 10 Years Later storyline. Originally in that story, I would just feature Doom's Eye outright, but using this would add a bit more spice to the scenario. Basically what's happened here, after the events of Shadow the Hedgehog (game) with the fall of Black Doom, G.U.N. has begun clean up of the Black Arms remnants. Amidst the wreckage of Central City, a still squirming Doom's Eye is collected from the rubble and taken to a very top secret government facility (so secret, it is kept from even Shadow himself for the next 10 years). There, they use Doom in a series of experiments, constantly torturing, killing, splicing and re-forming the creature in an attempt to create a usable Ultimate Lifeform on the level of Shadow the Hedgehog, titling the experiment "JUDGEMENT". The trials are mostly unsuccessful, and they barely manage to keep the specimen alive through advanced technology.

Fortunately for the researchers, they were successful in achieving the most important aspect they were aiming for; The ability to harness and operate Chaos Control warps through JUDGEMENT, and wield it for military use. During the course of the 10 Years Later storyline, Shadow the Hedgehog discovers what G.U.N. have been working on in secret, and in a rage defects from the organization, triggering his destined forsaking of humanity (which I've also detailed in the summary of Ark the Lizard).

So yeah! Fun little design and glad it could have some usage. Art is a bit sloppy, but it's a conceptional piece (and really, just a head, so don't expect anything fantastic, haha!). Now I'll get back to commissions~

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NOTE: The idea of him being a Tenrec head is now obsolete. As of the above linked image, he is now a Starfish in species.