You know what's crazy to think about? If a normal student came up with that, the teacher probably wouldn't have accepted it, but since Chris was retarded, they probably just went along with it because you know, retarded Chris. His greatest creation was just allowed because he was a slow-in-the-mind.
I always thought that the CD cover design project felt like an unusual high school class assignment. Is it possible that the whole thing was busywork for Chris alone while the rest of the class worked on research projects and the like?
I think so. I think it was part of a wider project, but Chris just latched onto that being his masterpiece work. Looking at Chris's schoolwork shows that he was well below the accomplishments of even a basic high school education, and the teachers most likely just accepted if Chris could do the barest of minimum of work for an assignment they'd grade much higher for normal students.
I think the video that strikes me as the beginning of the problems for Chris is actually that black and white school assignment where he is doing a pretend radio show. It starts semi coherently, if not autistically, but then it devolves into him talking about Bionic the Hedgehog like people know who the fuck he's talking about. Then, and most interestingly, he decides to have an aside where he tard rages at a teacher for giving him an F in English. In the clip he says "lowered" in the same manner he screeches "NOWNOWNOWNOW!". Even then he was coddled to the point he could not deal with people not bending to his idea of what things should be.
The wiki makes a comparison to the villain from American Rabbit, but honestly I don't think it's quite accurate. In American Rabbit, the big twist is that the villain isn't the fully concealed figure with the vulture companion, it's literally the vulture (much the same way how in Mass Effect, the main villain isn't the guy you think it is, it's his sentient spaceship pulling the strings).
It definitely would have had to have been something far more ambitious, with the whole 'can't use licensed characters' part maybe implying the cover was supposed to reflect more general topics (I.E. a kid who was really into cars would draw a generic Mustang or Camaro). Sonic being very concrete didn't fly. But Chris being Chris simply making sonic yellow, have a pikachu tail, and the weird pointy ear stalks probably pushed the line just enough that the teacher simply accepted it instead of getting into a pointless discussion that Chris would not learn from anyway.
The medallions are elementary school level crafts that more than make up the cost of materials if just one idiot buys them off etsy.
An astute observation.
I think this is a really neat take on the psychology of Chris, that goes beyond the usual "He's a manchild".Most of Chris' villains in his stories are crude facsimiles of real people who pose a level of social interaction that he in unable to navigate to get what he wants., and so he reimagines them in a manner that allows him to conquer that challenge in a way he understands. It's why he used to beat up people in Soul Calibur 3. The only way he can imagine "winning" in these situations is with fantasy violence/having the world bend to cater to him. Which is why I find you idea that Count Graduon is Chris trying to combat the entropy/change that is inevitable in his life fascinating. Chris can no more imagine overcoming inevitable change than you or I can imagine fist fighting gravity. And so the count remains an enemy that Chris fights, but can't really imagine himself overcoming. This is because to "defeat" entropy would require radical acceptance that things change and we need to embrace the responsibilities that come with that change. I would argue that Chris failed Erik Erikson's 4th stage of development (School Age, Industry vs Inferiority), and has consistently been held back by a refusal/inability to face the reality in ways he does not know. Again, I think Barb and Bob are a huge part of this stagnation, and giving him a false sense of accomplishment when he was really just wasting time rotting in the Westin Bed Bug Residence, but at the end of the day Chris has rejected every good faith hand that has been offered to him.
I don't know, Chris has a strange resilience and ability to overcome certain things that makes him still relevant these days. Take back in the Classic Era, you'd think a lot of people would just up and give up, maybe finding a niche community, looking at more local things, or just rotting at home, but Chris somehow has been able to both stay the same and change in a lot of ways.
I think it was a computer graphics class, so it's possible that it was just designing a CD cover. Just designing a CD cover is a job an adult can do.
Or it could be like an adult humoring a toddler that a crude crayon drawing on the fridge is a masterpiece.
That is an indicator of someone who, according to Erickson, has not completed the expected developmental stages. The idea being that as you successfully navigate each either/or option you eventually come out north of ordinary productive person. Chris' resilience is him being stuck and unable/unwilling to make any changes as his baseline of functioning is pretty delusional. I agree that over time Chris becomes less influenced by trolls/outside forces, but I view that as more of an adaption to his pathetic isolation and maladaptive behaviors rather than any sort of accidental success on Chris' part.
An actually sonic and pokemon fan comic would have been amazing. It’s just a shame he doesn’t bother to put any actual elements into those comics. The Archie/IDW run of the comics have a lot of artistry to them yet the comic is completely devoid of any real sonic or pokemon feeling material in the later issues. I find it baffling that he doesn’t at least try to add something considering the huge amounts of artistry to them.