User blog:Sclera1/Chaos Emeralds



The Chaos Emeralds (カオス エメラルド) are seven fictional gemstones from the Sonic the Hedgehog video games. According to the primary series each Chaos Emerald has mystical properties and abilities, and the holder of the gems can use them for a variety of purposes, including transforming into a powerful "super form". The emeralds serve varying purposes in each game and sometimes are of no use to the player at all, examples of this are Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic The Hedgehog(The Game). The emeralds are commonly and traditionally collected within a Special Stage.

Game Background
In the original Sega release of Sonic The Hedgehog there were only six Chaos Emeralds and when they were all collected they gave the player no special abilities, disappearing at the games end. When sega released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 they became the The Seven Chaos Emeralds and if the player collected them all as sonic he could achieve a super form. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 changed the color sceme of the emeralds slightly and  altered their shape. During Sonic & Knuckles the players could collect a set of 14 emeralds transforming the original seven into super emeralds ganting Sonic the ability to transform into Hyper Sonic while Tails and Knuckles could only achieve a standard super forms.Other Sonic games have also had many different character oriented abilities and also many varying shapes and colors usually going with a common theme.

Role in the games
Throughout most of the early games, Doctor Eggman tries to obtain the Chaos Emeralds in order to fuel his doomsday weapons. The player can choose to collect the Emeralds in their Special Stages in order to unlock a "good ending", a super form, or both.

In Sonic Adventure, the Chaos Emeralds were collected by Eggman in order to feed Chaos, the former guardian of the Chao and Emeralds, who can change its form every time it received one of the gems. With all seven, it became Perfect Chaos, and used up all of the negative energy in all seven Emeralds before dropping the unpowered and colorless Emeralds onto the ground. Sonic then picked up all seven emeralds and used the positive energy to become Super Sonic and neutralize Perfect Chaos.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic and Shadow had the ability to use the Chaos Emeralds to utilize "Chaos Control", an ability that alters time and space to teleport or freeze time. (However, Sonic didn't know that he could use Chaos Control until he absolutely had to in order to save himself from a sticky situation; furthermore, Sonic managed to use the ability with a fake emerald.)

In Sonic Rivals, Silver has returned and does not remember anyone; just that he is once again trying to save the world from Eggman Nega. Eggman Nega has a camera that seems to have the power of a Chaos Emerald. The camera locks a person/character in a card and freezes time for that person. The cards give off almost the same power of the Chaos Emeralds, like they are an unending power source.

In Sonic Heroes, Sonic becomes Super Sonic, and allows Tails and Knuckles to use the Chaos Emerald energy to transform into imitations of their super forms, the only visual changes being two spheres of golden energy surrounding Tails and Knuckles.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, the Emeralds were found throughout the stages again (except this time, they're obtained by beating the stage they're in), and Shadow used their miraculous powers to slowly reassemble his memories with each emerald. Shadow collected all seven by the end of the game, only to let them be stolen by the evil alien Black Doom, who used them to warp the Black Comet to Earth's surface with Chaos Control. Shadow then used the chaos emeralds to transform in Super Shadow to defeat Black Doom.

In the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog the Emeralds fully take on the power to "transform thoughts into power", just as the Master Emerald was said to be capable of doing in Sonic Adventure.

It has been hinted in Sonic Rush Adventure that the Chaos Emeralds have the ability to think and are capable of decision. They also seem to want to aid Sonic and others which is why they remain stable around the characters.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Chaos Emeralds appear as part of Sonic's Final Smash. He also holds a Blue Chaos Emerald during one of his victory shots.

Amount
There are seven Chaos Emeralds(Not including replicas) that make appearances in the Sonic Series. Other power gems are involved with series but are unrelated to the chaos Emeralds altogether.

Colors
The colors of the Chaos Emeralds are nowadays red, blue, yellow, green, white/grey, cyan, and purple. These are also the seven components of the RGB color model. This has not always been the case.

In the original Sonic the Hedgehog, the six Emeralds were blue, yellow, red, green, pink and gray. A seventh, purple Emerald was added to the roster in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, after which Sonic the Hedgehog 3 replaced the pink emerald with a cyan one, and the yellow Emerald with an orange one. The orange Emerald was reverted back to yellow again in Sonic Adventure, and the colors of the Emeralds have remained essentially constant ever since. with the grey emerald sometimes being rendered as white. It was revealed in Sonic Adventure that the negative energy within the Emeralds gives them their colors, as after Chaos used the Emerald's energy to become Perfect Chaos the emeralds are shown to be clear.

Certain games have used their own unique colors for the emeralds. In Sonic Spinball, they are all blue. In Sonic Battle, they are all green. In Sonic R, the Blue Emerald is absent, replaced with an orange one.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series by Archie Comics, the emeralds were spread across seven locations in the galaxy and there were hundreds of them. Each location had its own unique emerald color, with the total number of colors being seven. A later plot development led to all Emeralds of a certain color being fused together as one, resulting in the seven emeralds of the games. A black emerald served as a prison for Chaos 0 (see Sonic the Hedgehog #80), but it is not specifically stated to be a chaos emerald.

In the Sonic the Comic series, the emeralds are blue, yellow, red, green, orange, grey and purple.

Super transformation
Super transformation is a frequently recurring gameplay feature and story element that allows the player to play as a powered up version of the character, traditionally obtained by collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds in addition to 50 Rings, as was the case in the Genesis games starting with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The player can also collect the Sol Emeralds, activate the Super Emeralds, or break open an Item box with an "S" on it.

Features
Super transformation generally gives the character enhanced speed, similar to using a "High Speed" power up. The transformation also originally gave the character the same effect as the "Invincible" power up. As of Sonic & Knuckles (and all games since), taking damage while using super transformation will result in the character being thrown back a small distance. Even with the transformation enabled, during gameplay the character can still die by falling in a bottomless pit, being crushed, or drowning. Also, in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 release), Solaris is capable of damaging Sonic even when under super transformation.

The compromise in super transformation is that the power is sustained by Rings during gameplay. It originally took 50 Rings to enable the transformation, which are then gradually drained over time. Starting with Sonic Adventure, players are no longer allowed to manually transform, but are simply given the ability through the story. The rings are only used as a gameplay mechanic to limit how long the form can last. The exception to this was Sonic Riders, where only one Ring is needed. Running out of Rings in a final boss battle results in an instant loss of a life.

Another general super transformation ability is flight. This was originally unique to Super Sonic as he would fly above the ground at maximum speed, and take to full flight at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The ability is now shared by all transformations and is a defining trait. A character can also hover in midair as, beginning with Sonic Adventure 2, the transformation is usually used in areas high above the ground. The air can also act as the ground as shown in Sonic Heroes, enabling the player to use the same controls as if in a regular level.

Although it is a power up in itself, the super transformation can be powered up further. To do this, the player must collect all seven of the Chaos Emeralds and reactivate them in their powered up state as the "Super Emeralds." Once transformed, the character will then leave afterimages in its wake and be given an ability to instantly kill all enemies on screen (excluding boss battles). This was seen only in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

If multiple people are around when the chaos emeralds are being used they can both enter "Super Form" (such as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Sonic Heroes, and Xbox360 Sonic the Hedgehog), however, even though there can be multiple users, they share the same amount of rings that keeps them in "Super Form".

Chaos Control
Chaos Control is a special ability granted by a chaos emerald to warp time and space around a player. It can be used to inhance a players speed or even generate powerful energy attacks. Its use in the games has been inconsistent,although it has been seen in the newer games like Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow The Hedgehog

Other Chaos Powers
Appearing first in the 2-player mode of Sonic Adventure 2 and then canonized in the final level of Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic X, Chaos Spear is an attack whereby bolts of energy are thrown at an opponent. Another related power, that first appeared in the game Shadow the Hedgehog, is Chaos Blast. It is a large explosion of energy radiating outward from its creator. These powers have been altered and expanded upon with game-specific abilities by subsequent video games.

Master Emerald
The Master Emerald (マスー エメラルド) is a large, green emerald. It has unbound power, and is used to keep the Angel Island afloat in the sky. The Master Emerald also has the power to fully control everything that the Chaos Emeralds do.

Guardians
The Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald are guarded by Knuckles The Echidna.