#cyanprime

The United Federation is the Sonic World equivalent of the United States. It, along with every country Sonic visits in Sonic Unleashed/World Adventure, are the closest we have to a confirmed global map. And while Sonic doesn't actually visit the UF in Unleashed, the point of that game was to explore the rest of the world. We already have some ground maps of Station Square and the surrounding seaside/mountains thanks to SA1, and SA2's world map is suggestive at best. We're badly overdue for more confirmed maps.

The SonicX anime iirc is where Station Square was declared the capitol city of the UF, but after their SA1/SA2 adaptations the anime very clearly went in its own direction, so take that one with a grain of salt. We do however get confirmation that the same president of the UF is also who GUN answers to- as seen in several of the dark story paths in Sh:TH where the White House gets destroyed and the president is evacuated to GUN HQ. GUN also seems to be operating primarily out of the UF in SA2, but the ARK itself was supposedly an international project and secret. That plus GUN's international presence in Soleanna in 06 suggests they're something like Interpol or a more militaristic version of NATO. They're based out of the UN, but they can operate globally without accidentally declaring war on Soleanna, which just by itself suggests they're in accordance with some international treaties.

HOWEVER: aside from the game that wrote itself out of existence, we don't really see GUN deploying full on mechs and soldiers carrying live weaponry in territories other than the UF. SA2's Prison Island for example is an isolated base in the middle of the ocean, but it's wholly under the UF and GUN's control. Likewise with most city maps in SH:TH, they're implied or outright stated to be somewhere in the UF still, as GUN can completely oversee evacuations and such without political incident. Part of this is to simplify the writing and not have to animate and voice act three or four other presidents, and part of it is due to the implied size of the UF itself.

Personally speaking I think the messages of SA2 and Sh:TH are a little more pointed if they're based out of fantasy-America and dealing with direct consequences from overzealous military ideals and an obsession with weaponizing every technological/medical advancement. SonicX took this a step further with actually showing what happened to some of the soldiers on the ARK who questioned why they were gunning down children, as seen by Scarlet Garcia and Mr. Stewart's investigative journalism subplot. Have you ever wondered why a supposed peacekeeping organization would have a name that abbreviates to a weapon?

(Archie post-reboot took this a step further with a subdivision of GUN called CLIP, where Madonna Garnet showed up as an interrogation officer, but I have been unable to track down the actual comic as it was a side comic to a side comic and not in the graphic archives I'm using. They weren't subtle about the names at all.)

Now in complete contrast, the Restoration is a completely volunteer based organization more akin to nonprofits like Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. They have their roots in the Rebellion of Sonic Forces, which is also implied to be a volunteer led force, and can absolutely coexist at the same time as big military orgs. These are civilians signing up, not a pre-militarized force deploying. But this is also where things get weird, because IDW comic canon, while endorsed by Sega, does not have humans anywhere on the planet. Sonic makes direct references during the Metal Virus Arc to what he dealt with transformation/deadline-wise in Unleashed and Secret Rings, so we can assume this is the same Sonic who toured the entire globe and subsequent different cultures of humans living there, but we do not see a single confirmed human in the comics, nor do we have any direct references to them. GUN as an entirely human-plus-Rouge organization, is nowhere to be seen. In fact in terms of just video game canon, the last time anyone sees a human is probably in Unleashed!* We have an entirely human-free streak up until SxSh:G where we finally see an updated Maria and Gerald Robotnik design. And then of course all of a sudden we can have GUN and Soleanna references again, and if you count Sonic Racing: Crossworlds as canon then even Prison Island and subsequent Metal Harbor are back in the picture, which means the UF still exists and patched their old base up which means they still have an active and well funded infrastructure and...

Actually that also implies that GUN is still around in some form or another, which is fascinatingly weird as just a few games prior in Frontiers, Eggman was bragging in his notes about taking them down. But that's if you count Crossworlds as canon. I don't, because that would by extension make Minecraft and Persona canon in Sonic's version of Earth, which is just too big a can of worms to deal with on its own. Miku is fine; they actually have a version of Hatsune Miku in Sonic already.

*I'm not counting Eggman as a human. Man's already a walking cartoon villain.

So. What do I think? I think GUN exists- at its best- as a complicated and nuanced thing that is neither inherently good nor evil. The organization is supposed to be a tool for common good, but like with anything else power is best used in moderation, and power left unchecked turns corrupt pretty quickly. I think they should have messy arcs. I think with the right people in control and the right regulations, they can still do a lot of good, but their origins come from a place where one government thought they knew better than others and forced their own rules on everyone about it (again, Very Unsubtle Social Commentary). SA2 was entirely about the corrupt coverup of a horrible-but-intentional massacre. Sh:TH was about a lot of consequences of burying the truth to the point where people are in active danger from the lies. Hell, even Sonic Battle had a mournful subplot for Shadow where he got to discover all the hopeful things Gerald was trying to work towards before he was forced to weaponize his research.

So I take the nuanced approach. I had GUN face consequences for their actions. SA2 happened on live broadcast! Sh:TH had a sequel broadcast done by the Chaotix! The ARK's Eclipse Cannon fired not once but twice. Half of the fucking moon is gone. There's no way for GUN to cover any of that up. The public now knows all about the massacre, about the death laser, about Gerald's execution, about Project Shadow, and now about cannibalistic aliens that previously visited the planet on a routine basis.

And, of course, I had to write in a reason why GUN might be absent for a Global War: I.E. Exactly What They Exist To Prevent. Eggman's notes suggest he had a direct hand in taking them down, so that plus a previous history of unchecked power led to- imo- a pretty logical conclusion of internal corruption and sabotage; and externally a lot of other countries losing faith in their competence and rescinding permission to operate within their borders. And, as I directly stated in HiS, a lot of countries now want to sue for damages, with the funds claimed funneling directly into restoration efforts because those are making an actual tangible difference.

So GUN still exists, but they're very quickly falling apart because I love me some chain reaction consequences. But Commander Tower still exists, and he's such a juicy mess of a character that I had to keep him. He's a fellow ARK survivor, he's known Shadow from day one, he's witnessed countless war crimes and deep government secrets since he was like six years old. Man had no choice but to be in the military's pocket for his entire childhood, but the first thing he canonically did once he took control of GUN was establish some solid regulations. This is a pre-traumatized, pre-radicalized second or third generation army man, and his biggest goal in life was to keep the military from going too far ever again. If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what would.

So I gave him a fresh start with GRID, which aims to do the same international peacekeeping duties, but without the heavy emphasis on military force. Do they still have guns? Yes. Are they mostly formed from the grizzled old guard of war vets and mech pilots? Yes. But in IDW-Restoration fashion, they're also taking the time to directly ask the people what they need.

They're also all trained in first responder stuff because I think that's neat and totally won't come in handy with the stuff I have planned.