The Ashura the Hedgehog Story ▸ From Glitch to Legend
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2021
- This is the first in a series of Sonic character profiles. Let me know in the comments who you want me to talk about next!
"The Ashura the Hedgehog Story ▸ From Glitch to Legend"
In this video we'll be taking a look at Ashura the Hedgehog, a fan character who started life as an obscure palette glitch from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I'll be explaining how to pull off the glitch and why the glitch happens. Then we'll be diving deeper, trying to get to the bottom of who discovered the glitch and named the green Sonic "Ashura". Finally, we'll be assessing Ashura's legacy on the Sonic fanbase and on the Archie comic book series.
Please consider giving the video a like if you enjoyed and subscribing for more video game, movie and internet history videos in the future.
Find me on Twitter: / thejohnnyvector - Ігри
How about Super Ashura? I answer that and other follow up questions in this second video: ua-cam.com/video/LGeIY4wUCts/v-deo.html
You think you can cover the Terios the Prototype character in a video?
@@MikeAndRevioAdventures I covered that briefly in my Sonic Adventure 2 Iceberg video
@@JohnnyVector Ah, okay. Thanks anyways.
This glitch character is now known as Surge
In sonic 3 alone when you turn into super sonic again (debug mode) you can see Ashura for a split second and other glitched colors and slowing it down you can see it.
"Because of course they have to give a name to a palletswap glitch, thats what Sonic fans do!"
- Cybershell
Dude, I immediately thought of that quote when reading the title of the video x)
Haha, that just about sums it up
@@JohnnyVector dont worry undertale fans are like this too, just instead of palletswaps its now very obscure characters.
Sorry for ruining your perfect 69 likes
@@2009SkypeCall No where to go but down now
When I first saw Shadow the Hedgehog in magazines, I immediately wondered if they had made Ashura a real character.
Haha, brilliant!
@@JohnnyVector lol i saw this vid a month ago i didnt know ashura was a glitch but know i love palette glitches
Ay that's actually a very cool concept!
I had exactly the same thought. I remember the first time I heard of Shadow the Hedgehog my kind went back to the pallete swap glitch and thought it was so cool how Sega were turning a fairly unknown glitch into a real character. I don't think that's what actually happened, they just invented Shadow independently probably
Well now they actually have in the idw sonic comics
"In the Sonic fanbase we like to name our paletswaps with cool names"
Meanwhile in the Mario fanbase
*Green Mario*
*sad weegie noises* :(
No you mean red luigi
Did you mean weegie?
Bowsers brother
Ah a fellow debug fan.
"Ashura the Glitchhog"
*Wow* am I old
*”Ashura? I haven’t heard that name in years...”*
Same...
I've never heard of Ashura, dude.
Decades later, and Ashura is now official, at least in some form. In the IDW Comics, there now exists a character known as Surge, who is very clearly directly based on Ashura - she has green fur, with a patch of black on her face, fangs, and a very sinister personality.
wasn't scourge's green design also based off Ashura
@@Shadowed623 I think so, but it's more blatant with Surge.
Both scourge and surge have blue eyes too, like one of the many ashura palettes
@@FlamingFoxProd In a later aperance Scourge got a black head piece/crown on his forehead.
Scorurge was just as balant as Surge. Eventually.
It helps that the same game was involved in their creation.
(No matter what Ken Penders believes or say)
Similarly, her sidekick, Kit, was based on another glitch from the same game.
And Dr. Starline is similarly based on the ********* glitch, AKA "Wechnia" from Knuckles Chaotix.
I remember this glitchboy, I discovered him by accident on my own (messing around with debug in Emerald Hill trying to make the game crash in wacky ways) and my mind was BLOWN.
That's awesome. I was never able to pull it off back in the day but I've got the formula down perfectly now.
Whoa
I've always been a fan of these palette glitches like Ashura and Wechnia
Yeah, I don't know why they're so fascinating but they are
Same here.
Did you know that in sonic 3k there was a pallete swap glitch that (somehow)resembles the apereance of a _certain_ creepypasta character
Wechnia was actually referenced in multiple sonic comics. White and red Echidnas are common villains... and there's also another white monotreme whose name is a *line of stars*
Blue Knuckles/Red Sonic was always my favorite, although Ashura comes a close second.
He inspired Scourge in the Archie comics, which in turn inspired Surge in the IDW comics.
Wow. If I had a Nickel for every time A Sonic Character was based off of a glitch in a Sonic Game, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's cool that it happened twice.
@@hypnospaceoutlaw3376 Make that 5, since that white evil echidna in Archie and Starline in IDW are both based on the chaotix glitch, and Kit is based on a glitch that turned knuckles blue in S3&K
@@anchofucc7400 Actually 1 of my 2 nickels was Dr. Starline. I had no idea that Kit was also based off a glitch too.
Also Thrash the Devil
@@doyen6565 Thrash is not inspired by a glitch. Don't know what Ian Flynn was smoking, but the animation used when switching characters in Sonic and Knuckles is just an animation, not a glitch.
In my Sonic lore, Ashura is a professional wrestler. And so is Wechnia. One’s a face, the other’s a heel. While they are rivals in the ring, they are actually good friends in real life.
What the fuck?
A really random headcanon
Dude I'm gonna be real with you. I'm not even a Sonic fan but I can't get enough of your stuff. Keep it up king, I know you'll blow up to at least 50k by the end of the year
Thank you, I very much appreciate the fact that you can enjoy even though you're not a big Sonic fan. They'll be a mix of non-Sonic and Sonic stuff coming!
Agreed
Damn, 1997 and the fandom already makes sick ocs
yeah, cool names and not just fancy one or terrible ones like "destroy the hedgehog" or something
And it gotten worst over time
@@Sir_GrimReaper we also have "Evil the sackboy"
@@MichaelHawk455 no way thats real
@@cheses. it is,evil is a character from a ps4 dreams sonic.exe game
I was making a very basic ROM hack of Sonic 2 back in the day focused on Ashura the Glitch. I was very young and it never got finished, however, I plan on returning to this idea in the future. After my Sonic 2 remake, I really wanna make a Metroidvania/Sonic game starring Ashura in a glitchy world inspired by Axiom Verge. Safe to say I have remained fascinated by glitches ever since the Ashura days
Your ideas sound awesome. Keep up the good work
You should make a hub world and in a secret spot and if you stand long enough in that spot you teleport to a secret world that you have to complete to unlock ashura and you can choose between Ashura and other characters or you can make him a secret skin in the game
Maybe, just maybe, you can make his enemy the Phantom Ruby. I have been fascinated with it for a while, so seeing it represented in a proper light would make my day.
Looking at those old video game/online urban legends it makes me wonder... Did Japan also have their own versions of made-up characters and urban legends for Sonic games (or any games for that matter).
Especially in the 90's it seems that the internet was still very fragmented into various regions with many people who had no clue what was going on "on the other side"
A very interesting thought. You're probably right, I imagine there's elements of the Japanese Sonic fanbase that haven't transitioned to the West.
@@JohnnyVector yo do u know any Android rom hacks for classic Sonic games that have asura?
No. Sonic is not popular in Japan.
@@xXKillaBGXx i dont care, whats your next advice.
@@xXKillaBGXx but it was created in japan
Found this as a complete accident as a kid. Didn’t realise that it had this kind of history.
Holy sh*t I never knew any of this about Ashura despite being a sonic fan for nearly 15 years. Surprisingly I never heard any of the things you talked about in this video. I always thought Ashura was just a made up fan character in the epic Newgrounds series I grew up watching called Sonic Origins/Rise of the Brotherhood where he was Sonic's older brother created by Milanous in 2008. I knew of both Manic and Scourage but never knew Ashura had any origin outside of Newgrounds, and I've even played debug mode in Sonic 2. I'm loving all these video game history videos man. Thanks for feeding me more knowledge on this character because that Newgrounds series was a huge part of my internet childhood and its great knowing there's a lot more to this character outside of that.
Thanks for the comment. Really cool that Ashura brought back some cool Newgrounds memories.
I liked this quite a bit, especially seeing some of the fan art. I'd love to see videos on other glitch characters, both from Sonic and other franchises.
Thanks! I'll see if there's enough material for a Wechnia video, but I have one or two others in mind too.
@@JohnnyVector there might be. As he might be the basis of Archie's Dr. Finitivus. I can never spell that character's name right. 😅
I agree, also I find glitch characters very interesting.
A green hedgehog is all i want
Manic and Scourge are cool
If Ashura was an official character, he’d be the fifth canonical green hedgehog after Irish the Hedgehog.
1. Scourge from pre-reboot Archie.
2. Manic from Underground.
3. Green Sonic Clone from Archie Sonic X.
4. Irish the Hedgehog from Sonic Twitter.
@@rayvenkman2087 look up surge the hedgehog.
@@sparkzartmd2205 not a hedgehog, but more accurate to the glitch's color scheme.
I used to collect the Archie Sonic comics as a kid and I remember there was a green hedgehog in those comics who was an archer. I think his name was Rob, if I remember correctly.
@@Rishi123456789 He was more turquoise/greenish-blue than straight up green, but yes. He was a Robin Hood parody.
I first found Ashura in the Newgrounds sprite animation series Sonic Origins and Rise of the Brotherhood, where he was written as Sonic's younger brother. Deep respect to anyone who watched the series as a kid.
Damn I wish ken penders didn’t copy right the Archie comics and caused a new timeline retconning all of the old stuff and all he did was made some weird comic and fanfics in the end
We’ll give him credit for at least fleshing out the world of Mobius(screw what Sega says about it being Sonic’s World, it’ll always be Mobius to me) and make it a living and breathing world... At least when he wasn’t high on Knuckles or busy doing weird crap in the comics.
Although, screw him for getting Archie Sonic effectively cancelled and screwing over every other western creators in what they’re able to do with the Sonic Universe by giving Sega a reason to tightly what can or can’t be done with Sonic. Rules that are often as inconsistent as DBZ’s power levels.
Mate just say reboot, because that’s what that wave LITERALLY did😅
Although yes it’s annoying he’s the reason we’ll never see Scourge and many other comic characters ever again 😅
@@rayvenkman2087 He had some good idea, just didn't always execute them well.
And now Surge exists in the IDW comics. Which looks very similar to Ashura and with a similar name/personality to Scourge.
and she has immediately become my absolute favourite character lmao
Asura. The more official Sonic recolours there are, the more Sonic starts competing with G1 Starscream in how many variant and recolor brothers he’s got. Now we just need a Skywarp Sonic and we’ve got the whole gang.
I don't think we could ever pin point the "first" Sonic fan character as many of us in the 90s after the first 2 games came out were scribbling our own stories and drawings even without knowing or having an internet connection. I still have some the original drawings of my characters from at least 1993-1995. I was living in Puerto Rico without an internet connection but was making Sonic fan art. I'll have to redraw stuff to see it the way my 9 year old self wanted to. 🦔💙
Very cool. I never would have thought to put two and two together between Scourge and Ashura.
Thanks!
Or manic
Or surge the tenrec
Everybody now know that Manic is Sonic's brother!
i know that
I don’t know this, but is Underground canon?
Wow, didn't think Ashura went that deep. I remember there was a cheat site where they said you could unlock him in Sonic 2, but I never did. So I always thought it was a hoax.
I'm glad that even with Ken Penders taking Scourge, Ian Flynn is still keeping Ashura's legacy alive in the comics with Surge
I mean it’s great that Ian is able to do that but I’m annoying that Ken guy stole Scourge. Dressing up Sonic in a jacket and glasses should count as character design. Heck! Sega and the guy who redesigned him should own him fair and square!
Was just recommended this video and man, this takes me back. I was a huge Sonic kid and I first started heavily using the internet around 1997, so I naturally stumbled upon the mysterious lore of Ashura. Really makes me miss the 90s online Sonic fan scene.
As someone who has only played generations and racing transformed
I am still fascinated by this.
Oh my god you just unlocked the buried memories of my childhood.
Thank you.
Awesome, thanks
Ashura was also the basis for the color of the IDW character: Surge The Tenrec!
I KNEW IT.
I didn't experience the internet until I was 14 in 1998. And it was mind blowing to find all the cheat codes. Having to print them out too in the school computer lab lol. But, I never heard of Ashura until recently! Even if that fan art seems so familiar. Thanks for this great story!
Thank you for your comments. I was only a few years younger when I first experienced the internet. Weird to think kids nowadays are probably online a decade earlier.
Wow I was BORN in ‘98😅
I remember one day I was just messing around with debug mode and I discovered this and I lost my mind.
Now we really got Ashura in the IDW comics as Surge
Really funny how some months after this video IDW created a character based on Ashura
Ian Flynn made Ashura a character in the IDW Sonic recently.
Oh boy, good times. Back when I somehow mixed up the letters and got my username. The internet was much simpler back then.
"ashrua" lol
Who remembers Two Evil Scientists by RyanMC?
Ashura became a recurring character in that sprite comic, which today exists only as a back up in archives due Smackjeeves being purchased and later closed down.
*"Ashura? Wechnia? I haven't heard those name in years... It's nice to hear them again~"*
Incase anyone see's this comment, hello! There's actually an update on this. Recently a new IDW sonic character by Ian Flynn has been leaked, named Surge the hedgehog, a green hedgehog girl with a black forehead and electric powers. Hopefully I don't need to explain much beyond this, but yes, it is heavily speculated that this character is based off ashura.
Top 5 best Sonic Fan Characters, Nº 1, Ashura.
Definitely
SEGA should make him an official character to the franchise right now
Yeah
I mean we got shadow, but he's red & black, not green & black.
Surge says high
So a new character just dropped in the IDW comics called Surge the Tenrec, which looks even more like an Ashura reference lol
I saw that on Twitter. 100% Surge is an Ashura reference, pretty cool.
Can I ask for a video request?
What's the origin of Sonic's nickname "Blue Blur" came from? I looked all over the internet and came to many deadends.
Was the nickname coined from fans or was it original by from Sega them self?
IDK it seems like nobody knows... A reply will be helpful...
Thanks for the request, I'll add it to the list!
@@JohnnyVector Thankies that's much appreciated!
Wherever it came from, I bet it's because he's fast and usually fast things becomes a blur when being pictured
@@shookengie370 That makes sense, although I wondered where that name originated from...was it fan made or created by Sega through an obscure magazine. Rarghhhhh I just need to know
I have a feeling it might come from sonic x maybe not
Your channel is seriously underrated, keep going at it and I'm sure you'll pick up steam!
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the support
Huh... thanks for explaining the whole Ashura thing in so much detail.
I saw pictures for years and also know the name but I never understood why and how to actually make this glitched sprite appear.
Given how creative the Sonic fan community can be, this might very well be the kickoff for all fan characters and OCs, including those of the comics on both sides of the river.
Great video,never knew there was so much lore about the color palette
Thanks, glad you enjoyed!
Ashura and Wechnia: The Genesis Glitch Bros.
we have another ashura inspired character to add to the list! now from the idw sonic comics!
Surge The Tenrec!
also known as
TOTALLY NOT SCOURGE DO NOT STEAL
‘If you know ashura,give yourself a pat on the back’
Me who replayed the video:
My God I love videos like this! I missed all this stuff in the 90s
Thanks! Glad it triggered some nostalgia
@@JohnnyVector It sure did. Glad I found your channel recently.
Thank you for telling me to give a pat on my back
I love people who have voices like Johnny
His voice is that one voice that soothes you when you’ve had a rough day
In my AU where the Sonic franchise is so good that Sega rules the world Ashura is a legit character and he's the bad guy of the actual Sonic 4 for the Saturn, 64X and DreamCast 1. Ashura has powers that mimic debug mode and he keeps the millions of Chaos Emeralds in outer space out of the hands of evil.
Question. Meaning of au?
@@pixelatedink774 alternative universe
This is strange yet awesome
I remember finding this on the Mega Drive collection on PSP and being obsessed with it for months, I was so set on breaking every single game in that collection
Awesome, did you find any other cool palette glitches?
@@JohnnyVector Sadly not, although there were hella bugged sprites in other games if that counts
Sega just announced a new sonic game that involves some glitch ability, Let’s hope that Ashura is cannon fingers crossed 🤞.
Wow. Never thought of that. Ill keep my hopes up! Sorta.
It looks like one of those recolor OC from the 00's
Folks were doing "recolor" OCs since 1991 or 1992. 🤣
I think it's a tradition:)
You forgot to mention that IDW's 'Sonic'-comic may have taken inspiration from Ashura too; the latest villain-character introduced, Surge the Tenrec, has a color-palette inspired by Ashura, and has very similar abilities to Sonic. So, yes; it looks like Ian Flynn has not forgotten! =)
Fun fact: sonic.EXE design was based off a glitch in sonic 3 that would turn sonics eyes black with red pupils. If you had tails with you his fur would turn gray and he would also have black eyes with red pupils. The glitch was caused by replacing the main games color palette with the ending.
I mentioned that in my S3&K video and a few commenters suggested the creator of sonic.EXE was asked about it and denied it so I'm not entirely sure.
@@JohnnyVector well the glitch isn't very well known despite the videos about it so mabey it was just a coincidence
Now I also know how the fanmade tails.exe
I DEFEATED ASHURA. I DID WHEN IT WAS THE BATTLE FOR SONIC.
God… that’s a name I haven’t heard in aaaages.
I remember someone was making a mod to convert Unreal Tournament 2004 into a Sonic game and Asura was one of the playable characters. Good times!
Awesome, I think you might be thinking of 'Ashura: Dark Reign"
@@JohnnyVector Yes! God that takes me back…
Thats amazing!!!!!
Mind blown! Thanks for the update on Ashura's origin. The code gotten to me and I always use the Super Sonic. Ashura looks like a green sphere out of nowhere
5:22 Oh my gosh! That's my old fan art! Thanks for featuring my art, I feel so honoured! 😄
I did not know about that wechnia nod. That's super cool
The original recolour OC
(Also i love the glitch bois)
Wow great video man keep up the good work
Thanks!
Funny you mention Manic from Sonic Underground. That series needs a reboot SO bad! THEY MADE A VOW!!
Great video 👍
It answered a lot of questions
Thank you, glad you liked it
Thanks for the info!
No problem, glad you liked it
Starline from the IDW sonic comic is based on wechnia
Awesome, thanks. I'd love to read more of the Archie & IDW comics.
@@JohnnyVector the name starline is also taken from wechnia's real name: **********
@@Chokun-Gaming thats smart
worth noting: surge the tenrec from the idw comics. shes based on ashura, VERY clearly so, and is supposed to be an evil sonic. while shes not exactly ashura, shes clearly meant to pay homage to him, which i find really cool.
OMFG after all these years I can finally show people what I witnessed. As a kid I used to mess around with debug mode a lot and some how triggerd this green sonic glitch. I used to call it green super sonic. I never came across it again after 22 years now I see on your video what it was. All my freinds at the time never believed me. Now I can prove them wrong after soo many years!
Haha that's awesome! Congrats on stumbling on the glitch as a kid as well. I never would've seen this guy without tips from the early internet.
That the level select and debug code had a meaning all this time just retroactively blew my past self's mind.
Ashura was the basis for Surge in IDW.
I remember playing the 2d games as a kid and seeing my oldest brother do this glitch.
Good memories
You should do a Iceberg on Sonic 2
just found out about Ashura's existence .. i mean I am more of a Mario fan but I like Sonic too .. and it's interesting to listen about Ashura the GlitchHog!
Nice street fighter akuma sprite use
Haha, thanks!
@@JohnnyVector your welcome nothing gets past these eyes...wait was that outside my window?
Wow i remember this guy back in the day. Too bad most people nowadays tend to mistake him as an OC even though that's not completely true.
the 1st time i saw Ashura and Wechnia was in the flash game Sonic Boom Cannon 2, that game introduced me to so many characters!
idk when she was first revealed
but IDW also made a character based on Ashura
Surge the Tenrec
a tenrec cyborg, created by Starline (a character based on Wechidna), with the goal of replacing Sonic in the public eyes (in the IDW universe)
Ashura actually did get acknowledged by Sega to a degree, albeit not by name. The unlockable cheat menu in Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PS2 mentions how to pull off the glitch.
Very interesting, thanks, I'll have to check that out
Wait WHAT?!
Oh my god! I can actually try it!!!!🤩
Awesome video! Have you considered doin g other videos for similar pallatswap glitch characters, like Wechnia the Echidna from Knuckles' Chaotix?
thanks for telling me that the fans have my back
And now we have Surge the Tenrec.
Nice!
Thank you!
That’s cool!
I am a HUGE FAN of Sonic since I played Sonic 1 for the Sega Genesis (or the Sega Mega Drive as we call it here in Australia) for the first time back in 1996 and I am also an Indian and a Hindu, so I'm proud that an element of Hindu mythology not only entered into the Sonic franchise but also achieved a certain degree of officialness via the Archie Sonic comic character Scourge and the IDW comic character Surge (The word 'asura' means 'demon' in the Sanskrit language and the Sanskrit language is the sacred language of Hinduism. Also, the concept of the asura was transferred from Hinduism to its daughter religion Buddhism and then Buddhism was introduced into Japan, where the word 'asura' became the similar word 'ashura').
There are an infinite number of universes and this means that there are an infinite number of universes where Sonic is 'real'. It is possible for us to enter into these universes where Sonic is 'real' simply by using manojava siddhi (which is the ability to instantly take your body wherever your mind goes, which is basically teleportation) to teleport ourselves into a universe where Sonic is 'real'. In the ancient Sanskrit language of India, the word 'siddhi' means 'perfection'. In its most common usage, the word 'siddhi' refers to an ability that is a natural and inherent faculty of our true identities as eternally alive souls. The soul is smaller than an atom and larger than the universe. The soul is infinitely small and infinitely large. The soul is ALL-PERFECT AND EVER-PERFECT. The soul is the storehouse of ALL ENERGY, ALL POWER AND ALL STRENGTH. The soul is PURE CONSCIOUSNESS. The soul possesses ALL siddhis and there are an INFINITE number of siddhis. Among all of these siddhis, there are considered to be eight major siddhis. Siddhis can be awakened through a variety of methods. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras IV.1, it is stated:
"Siddhis may be attained through birth, the use of herbs, incantations, self-discipline or samadhi."
Here is a list of the eight major siddhis (in no particular order):
Laghima siddhi: Making your body and/or anything else as light as you want.
Garima siddhi: Making your body and/or anything else as heavy as you want.
Mahima siddhi: Making your body and/or anything else as large as you want.
Anima siddhi: Making your body and/or anything else as small as you want.
Prapti siddhi: Having unrestricted access to any and/or all places.
Prakamya siddhi: Fulfillment of whatever you desire.
Isitva siddhi: Control over any and/or all of the laws of nature.
Vasitva siddhi: Being able to control any and/or all beings.
You can awaken your siddhis through samyama, which is a state of consciousness in which one perceives the fundamental level of 'reality' where a perceiving subject (like you, for example) is merged with your perceived object. For example, to achieve laghima siddhi, you have to perform samyama on the lightness of a feather (for example) so that you become as light as that feather (or that you become the lightness of that feather, if you want to look at it that way).
"A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well I’m now convinced to acknowledge the glitch characters. Have to find out WHO named them Ashura🤔
It was Charles "Kiken" Mugg who named him Ashura
@@JohnnyVector thanks🙂
Groovy.
I kind of miss that era of video games tbh. Where there was this sense of mystery to them since there wasn't literally all info available about it poured online. it allowed people to wonder and imagine what could be hidden in a game. Nowadays, the only way to experience that is to ironically actively avoid any content about the video game you want to buy so you can go in completely blind.
I remember in Jr High circa 2001 some kid Told me about Ashura. Except that he also had a sword on his back besides the Green Pallette Swap, and was a secret character in Sonic Adventure.
BEST VIDEO ON UA-cam
Thank you for the high praise!
I have a small theory that the IDW comics character "Surge the Tenrec" is a reference to this, that or overly convenient color palette, I would love more of that character and to know for sure if her colors are a reference.
6:22 eggman got a new paint job!
I best know Ashura for his role in Two Evil Scientists, which was a Sonic and Mega Man crossover comic hosted on SmackJeeves. It was extremely popular and turned the lore for multiple characters on its head, such as capitalizing on Ashura's nature as a glitch.
He was the villain in my sonic sprite comic lol