The Sonic Adventure 2 Iceberg Explained

It's finally time to explore the Sonic Adventure 2 iceberg. Join me as we dive into the waters and explore how deep this iceberg goes starting with some more well-known facts in the shallow waters and descending down into the more obscure and weird nuggets of knowledge below in the depths.

Chapters :-
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Tip of the Iceberg
06:30 Below the Surface
13:19 Middle of the Iceberg
20:43 Bottom of the Iceberg
28:21 The Depths

Sonic Adventure 2, as Sonic's final adventure on a SEGA console, is such an interesting game and I had a fun time researching and talking about some of the game's obscure lore.

Recommended videos and links :-

Links to more Sonic resources :-

Music Credits (all music is taken from the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack) :-
- "Escape From The City"
- "Egg Quarters"
- "Security Hall"
- "34ºN, 12ºE (Mad Space Theme)"
- "Lost Colony"
- "Biolizard"
- "The Last Scene"

[JohnnyVector]

Chapters :-
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Tip of the Iceberg
06:30 Below the Surface
13:19 Middle of the Iceberg
20:43 Bottom of the Iceberg
28:21 The Depths

[aurafox]

Honestly, I actually like the fact that the characters constantly cut each other off. As a kid, I had no clue it was a mistake and just thought they were talking over each other. It actually usually happens during more hectic scenes. There are a few awkward moments where they respond to something before it's said, but I always thought they were just anticipating where the conversation is going. In a way, it actually makes the dialogue a tad more realistic.

[lavieunrose]

I always interpreted Shadows memory of Maria’s request as him misunderstanding, and remembering incorrectly out of anger, and it wasn’t until Amy gave him that speech on the Space Colony ARC that he finally realized she meant that he could give earth a chance to be happy. Because he’s been a living time capsule for nearly 50 years, I would imagine he hadn’t been able to go through all of the stages of grief, and so we see him change thru out the story going through those stages. Denial, when he believes he can get revenge for Maria, Anger, when he misinterprets her final request, Bargaining, when he asks eggman to threaten the earth into surrendering, Depression, when he sadly reminisces Maria’s memory before Amy approaches him, and Acceptance, when Amy give him a speech about earth.

[dabluepittoo-aqua]

Not gonna lie, the character interrupting in the Shuttle Crash scene actually works to it's benefit. That's likely how it would go in real life, with everyone panicking and talking over one another.

[aergies]

Sonic and shadows screams were not actually unused, they were put together and mixed into the biolizards scream

[emmeownelan]

Something I picked up on in my first playthrough of SA2 that ties into the Sonic being the ultimate lifeform that wasn't mentioned in the theory is the scene where Sonic is jettisoned from the Space Colony Ark. Having not ever performed chaos control before this point, he utilised a fake chaos emerald to perform the ability copying Shadow. Later, Shadow's reaction to Sonic surviving the attempt on his life implied that Shadow believed such a feat was impossible, Shadow himself stating "maybe there's more to you than just looking like me"

[toppercent]

I am a fluent speaker of Japanese. One reason for using the number 38 might be because the numbers 3 and 8 (san and hachi) can also be read as Sanba.

[stygian]

whenever I think of Big cameos all I can think of is that one scene where Rouge and Knuckles are fighting and big is in the back "lauging"...

[laylamorrison]

Man, I can't wait to see how deep Sonic 06's iceberg's going to go. Cause that game is DEEP.

[MishKoz]

7:14 huh, maybe this is why Shadow says he'll grant Eggman a wish when they first meet. I always thought that was weird.

[KaiserMattTygore]

While I do think the game implies that Sonic is probably the "real ultimate life-form" I think its more of a "dragonball esque" trope where Sonic was around building his skillset and using his super form far longer than Shadow who only just returned from cryo-stasis.

[TiagoMonteiroArt]

I don't think Shadow's fake memories invalidate him having actually met Maria. According to Gerald's diary, he had full control of Shadow's memories (made more evident in the Japanese dub), which, together with more evidences, suggests that the Professor got a hold of Shadow after both of them were sent to Earth, and during that time, he re-designed Shadow's mind to carry out his own plan for revenge on what GUN did to him and his granddaughter. He made Shadow think Maria's request was for him to avenge her, instead of bringing hope to mankind, but Amy managed to help him remember the truth.

Also, slightly unrelated, but in a cutscene where Shadow remembers a conversation he had with Maria in the ARK, he confessed he wondered what his purpose was. Then, in the cutscene where Maria sends him to Earth and asks him to save mankind, she answers that early question of his, telling him that saving mankind has always been his purpose. Again, this is more evident in the Japanese dub, since in the English dub those two separate conversations sound kind of unrelated.

[JacksonMcKay]

Building on the Sonic is the Ultimate Lifeform theory; if you're playing as Super Sonic at about the 4 minute mark in the Final Hazard boss, Shadow says "Hahaha Sonic! I think I've discovered what the ultimate lifeform is. It might be you!"

[nickhall]

29:40 That's one of the animals you can find in the stages to give to Chao. It's called "Half Fish" and is part of the Ghost group of animals along with the Bat and Skeleton Dog.

[kaihedgie]

34:33 - My rebuttal to this has always been that, despite Shadow being the first known character to harness Chaos Energy with a single Emerald, he has far less experience harnessing the power of all seven Emeralds. He was likely bleeding more Ring Energy because of it whereas Sonic has regularly used all seven Emeralds in multiple games and knows how to better maintain the Super form

[Manynamesonehandle]

5:29 im pretty sure it's supposed to be ironic. seeing as knuckles usually flexes his personality in this game and several others. he says he isn't afraid of ghosts even tho he is afraid of ghosts.

[zeropointer]

A detail I liked in that in the Sonic X adaptation they state that 2 capsules were ejected from the colony when it was shutdown, adding more doubt that shadow was the ultimate lifeforms

[lajbartek]

The Depths:
-This is the only kids Game where villan *Pissed on the Moon*

[enchilad]

The coordinates in Mad Space's song title actually have a cool little secret. Mad Space's hints are all backwards right? Well if you reverse the the coordinates, it actually puts you in Egypt which of course is a key location in the game

[brandonbaka]

Sees Iceberg for History: Nothing
Sees Iceberg for Lost Media: Hm okay
Sees Iceberg for Sonic Adventure 2: This is the one