What If Emerl Survived?

''What If Emerl survived? With his growing library of copied abilities - how much more powerful could he get? The lovable 4000 year old Gizoid now stands aside Sonic against new adversaries, like the formidable Gemerl!''

History
What If Emerl Survived? is the second What If story and part of the original first wave of Sonic: What If?. Starting on December 3rd of 2019 roughly 2 months after the last installment of the show (Part 2 of #WI01), Emerl's story was the first departure from the tale of the Werehog and provided the first glimpse at how even relatively minor characters such as Sonic Battle's Emerl could be given the spotlight. The Sega Scourge has claimed to have a particular fondness for the robot characters of the Sonic series, with specific mentions to Emerl and E-102 Gamma (who also received his own What If with a similar premise). This fondness is likely why Emerl's story came about to soon into the show's lifespan.

After the release of Part 4 and it's conclusion to the Sonic 06 Arc, #WI02 went on break due to The Sega Scourge believing it had reached a 'good stopping point for now', giving him time to plan the story ahead while dedicating his time to other What Ifs.

Premise
In the climax of Sonic Battle, Emerl was sent into a berserk state by Doctor Eggman while all seven Chaos Emeralds were absorbed into his body as part of his journey to grow up. In the original depiction of events, Sonic persued Emerl onto the Death Egg with the Master Emerald to attempt to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds inside of him and get him away to safety, but Emerl shattered the Master Emerald before it could be used. Sonic was then forced to fight his surrogate son until he eventually go could go on no longer, his body disappearing as the Chaos Emeralds within were left shattered to pieces.

In this version of events, however, Sonic used the Master Emerald to become Super Sonic. With the added speed, durability and access to the Master Emerald, Sonic was able to deal with Ultimate Emerl and come out on top, at the unfortunate cost of accidentally slicing off the Gizoid's arm in the stuggle. With no time to grab the unfortunately missing appendage, the two of them escaped with the Master Emerald intact as the Death Egg went down around them - Emerl had survived.

Sonic Battle Arc

 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 1
 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 3 (Mephiles' POV)

Sonic Advance 3 Arc

 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 1

Sonic 06 Arc

 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 2
 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 3
 * What If Emerl Survived? Part 4

Reception
This What If has met solid positive reception since it began, mostly from devout fans of Emerl and Sonic Battle. With a protagonist from a niche game and having a story that tackles both it and the lore of other relatively more obscure games such as Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, The Sega Scourge placed extra effort on making this series accessible via an explanation of Emerl's origins in the opening of the first episode (to dispel any misconceptions especially surrounding Sonic X's depiction of the character) and also explaining his grounds for including the Nocturnus Clan in Part 4. With this support and the charming character of Emerl, #WI02 has thrived in spite of the potential hardships woven into it's premise and helped introduce Emerl to a wider audience. What If Emerl Survived has done consistently well on polls, in no small part due to it's 3 part adaptation of Sonic 06 which as well as being the first 'double episode' (Parts 2 and 3 were released a day apart) had a particularly shocking twist leading into Part 4.

Trivia

 * What If Emerl Survived was the first What If series to feature a sponsored episode as Part 2 was sponsored by Into the AM.
 * As part of the first wave of Sonic: What If? episodes, it is one of the series that has featured the original pale blue background.
 * The second and third episodes also featured the Casino Night background, with the current Time Machine background being implemented in Part 4
 * In Part 2, there is a comedy bit at the start of the episode in which the green screen cuts off and The Sega Scourge talks to a voice off-screen who appears to be a member of some kind of filming crew. This voice was Mechanist Gamma, assistant writer for #WI03 and moderator in the Sega Scourge Studio Discord server.
 * This is the first What If to have adapted the following games:
 * Sonic Battle
 * Sonic Advance 3
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
 * This is the first What If to include the Gizoids as well as the Nocturnus Clan.