NIGHTS IN NEON

((and buckle up for another lacanian analysis of this masterpiece kids and YES IT DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS SO U BEEN WARNED))

Let's look at shadow first - Sonic's literal dark doppelgänger - the perfect crystallization of the mirror stage but in its ~inverted~ form. He is what Sonic would have become had he encountered the traumatic Real(tm) of loss without the symbolic framework of family. In his most radical form he is the precise Lacanian distinction between symbolic and imaginary identification (aka Shadow IS that other - the fundamental split).

But if you think this is where this brilliant character profile ends THINK AGAIN bc one of the key shadow lines is “the light shines even though the star is gone" and that is where we arrive at our first delicious paradox: it reveals this wonderful twist in the dialectic of desire and drive. The “star” - Maria - appears initially as that object-cause of desire but through Shadow's traumatic encounter with the Real(tm) of her death, this relationship becomes inverted into something far more fucked up: Desire transformed into drive through a sort of 'second death' - the death not just of Maria as a person but of the very symbolic framework that gave meaning to her loss.

So at first that “light” that still shines in Shadow's formulation is not the light of memory or mourning but rather the phosphorescent decay of desire itself, transformed into the cold mechanical circuit of drive - a kind of death-machine that operates beyond the pleasure principle.

And this, in return, mirrors the kind of destructive potential that is ALWAYS lurking beneath the surface of all of our… hedgehogian selves.

Shadow is, in this sense, what we cannot accept about ourselves: our inner death drive if you will, which seeks nothing less than the annihilation of all Symbolic order - yes this is indeed later on embodied by the literal eclipse cannon too. (I'll get to the cannon in a moment because MY GOD this movie left no metaphorical crumbs to gobble up on)

But aside from Shadow's character there are OF COURSE deeper ideological dimensions at work here:

Take the G.U.N. facility where Shadow was created (?) - a perfect example of the so-called 'Big Other' (aka the symbolic order that structures our social reality). The facility's transformation into a site of trauma perfectly exemplifies how the Big Other always contains its own point of failure - its own internal contradiction essentially. (which is also exemplified in the obstacle run they have to get past when breaking in and how every threat of violence is rendered meaningless with the mere push of a button or use of counter-tools)

NOW BACK TO THE CANNON, a perfect metaphor for ‘jouissance’ - an excessive enjoyment that threatens to destroy the subject. And ofc it is gramps Robotnik who has built it - the personified escalation of Eggman’s capitalist excess, a fellow manchild who is just as obsessed with technological control and then taken that one step further even to become the true embodiment of the symbolic order’s failure: its inherent perversion, making himself look ridiculous in his attempt of imposing order on an universe that refuses to be categorised. Gramp's desire to destroy Earth is thus not simply revenge, it is the pure drive toward jouissance in its most destructive form.

And is this not precisely what we find in our capitalism??? Aka a system that - in its blind drive for profit - threatens to destroy the very conditions of its own existence????

(also something something law of the father with these two absolute freaks)

BUT LETS MOVE ON TO THE FINALE

Bc that is when we’re truly traversing the fantasy - when Sonic must confront his own spectral double. Its the perfect staging of the fundamental distinction between desire and drive with these two right there: as I’ve mentioned before - Shadow is still caught in that pure circuit of drive here; his quest for revenge appears to be directed toward a goal (destroying G.U.N./the world to avenge Maria) but what he really ‘enjoys’ - and this is the paradox of drive - is the repetitive movement itself, the circular pattern of destruction (as we also see when he slamfists Sonic’s ‘dad’)

Bc drive doesn't care about reaching its goal; it finds satisfaction in the very failure to reach it. That’s why Shadow keeps repeating his trauma, circling around the void left by Maria's death.

LO AND BEHOLD - Sonic's intervention!

When he says that “(their) love for the people they have lost is more important than revenge", he is precisely articulating the structure of desire as opposed to drive. Desire always maintains a minimal distance from its object - it needs this distance to function.

That’s why Sonic can speak of Longclaw's loss without being consumed by it, he has symbolised the loss - integrated it into his own symbolic order, so to speak.

So when Sonic spares Shadow, he is showing him how to transform the endless circuit of drive (= Shadow’s compulsion to destroy) into desire (= Sonic’s ability to maintain a relationship with loss without being consumed by it)

THAT’S the difference between the aim and the goal; the aim of drive is simply to circle around the object, while desire actually maintains a relationship with lack itself.

Now I could go on about a MAJOR SPOILER post-credit scene here but I already lost the thread on this entire thing so.

Our last midnight before Midnights… 🌌

CARMY BERZATTO