What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form?

''Sonic The Werehog. This fearsome form was lost permanently when Dark Gaia reclaimed the energy that caused the transformation; in the finale of Unleashed. But what if that never happened? How would Sonic fare in his future adventures if the Werehog was still a part of him?''

History
What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? is the first story in the Sonic: What If? series. It's first part was uploaded on Octobor 16th of 2019 roughly 1 year after the last entry in The Sega Scourge's previous main video series: The Sonic Theorist. As the maiden voyage into a new style of content, #WI01 tackles a rather simple and easy to grasp question that has likely been asked by many Sonic fans over the years, making it an accessible jump-on point especially for fans of Sonic Unleashed.

Premise
This What If diverges from the main timeline at some point towards the climax of Sonic Unleashed., when Dr. Eggman is putting together his plan to hypnotize the Dark Gaia Spawn across the planet and reform the full Dark Gaia. Remembering Chaos' insubordination, he not only prepares the spire that lured the Dark Gaia Spawn via electromagnetic frequencies and the Dark Gaia fusion furnace, but a device that would ensure that this godly being would remain under his control.

Later during Sonic's battle against the Egg Dragoon in his Werehog form, Eggman realizes that he has little chance of victory with his Egg Dragoon and unleashes his trump card: a controller linked to a mind control device affixed to Dark Gaia's head. Using this controller (the controller to the Dreamcast visible inside his Eggmobile during Sonic Unleashed's opening) Eggman summons the giant planetary god to do battle with Sonic and attack with 'all his strength'. This command makes Dark Gaia throw out constant attacks without re-absorbing it's essence within Sonic, and as such he never loses the Werehog transformation.

Sonic Unleashed Arc

 * What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? Part 1

Sonic and the Black Knight Arc

 * What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? Part 2

Sonic Colours Arc

 * What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? Part 3

Sonic Generations Arc

 * What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? Part 4
 * What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? Part 5

Reception
What If Sonic Never Lost The Werehog Form? has been consistently well received and has placed well on community polls deciding the production order of What If episodes. Despite the seemingly simple premise, there are multiple instances of large collective requests and ideas among the fanbase such as the huge push of requests for Classic Sonic to receive a Werehog transformation in the eventual adaptation of Sonic Generations as well as clamour for an adaptation of Sonic and the Secret Rings despite the events of said game already having happened before Sonic Unleashed. Both of these far-reaching requests ended up going fulfilled in the long awaited Sonic Generations Arc.

Another example of this story's reception is found in the multitude of theories that have been supposed in the fanbase such as the 'Stage of Grief' theory, in which each story arc represents Sonic undergoing a stage of grief in the wake of his 'curse'. With it's ability to cause such large debates and exchanges of ideas, #WI01 has a prominent effect on the Sonic: What If? Community and is a well respected story loved by many fans.

Trivia

 * Being part of the first wave of Sonic: What If? episodes, #WI01 features the original pale blue backdrop for Parts 1 and 2.
 * Part 3 features the Casino Night background, as with all the Wave 2 episodes minus Part 1 of #WI04.
 * #WI01 was the first series to feature animated clips of Sonic cutscenes to accompany the narration as well as custom images.
 * In Part 4, The Sega Scourge states that Classic Sonic had never gone Super before, but this was retconned after the episode's release.
 * This is the first What If to have adapted the following games:
 * Sonic Unleashed
 * Sonic and the Black Knight
 * Sonic Colours
 * Sonic Generations