YMMV / Sonic X: Dark Chaos

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The beginning of Episode 67 features Tails having an... ahem, erotic dream about Cosmo. It's never brought up again but the resulting nocturnal emission subtly foreshadows the effects of his Shroud transformation later in the episode.
• Cry for the Devil: Tsali. He seems like an utterly Ax-Crazy monster at first glance, until the story begins to become more clear - not only did he have a Break the Cutie backstory that could put Guts to shame, he's basically ruined the entire galaxy and his own family through his lust for revenge. Episode 74 basically milks this trope for all its worth when Tsali finds out that Maledict had betrayed him from the very beginning - his resulting Villainous Breakdown is hard to take.
• Funny Moments: This story has this gem:

  Chris: "Yeah, here's the problem. The words 'Satan' and "promise" don't go very well together."

  • Also in Episode 65 when Vector discusses his plan to get Tails and Cosmo together:
    Vector: "We gotta make sure Tails enjoys his time and has fun with her."
    Charmy: "You mean they're gonna have-"
    Vector: "Not THAT kind of fun!"
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Venus the Seedrian ritually sacrificed several of her friends and their families (including their children) so she could gain enough power to stop Tsali. Her subsequent My God, What Have I Done? and betrayal of Maledict was her attempt to atone for her unforgiveable crimes by stopping his plans.
  • Beelzebub swan dives through the horizon when he rapes Chris and nearly rapes Cosmo in Episode 67 — and establishes himself as one of the most evil characters in a Crapsack World brimming with evil characters.
• Narm: The original version was so narmy that the author declared it an Old Shame and decided to completely rewrite it several years after he finished it. While better than the original, even the rewritten version isn't completely free from it:
  • Beelzebub would be a lot scarier as a villain if he didn't call himself Mister Fudgeicle.
  • The extremely grimdark setting in general is so over the top and trying so hard to be "edgy" that it comes off as silly; this is probably why the rewrite plays most of it for Black Comedy and Narm Charm.
  • Episode 73 has the utterly groan-inducing line "Oh fuckles, it's Knuckles."
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Anything involving Dark Chaos Energy and what it does to unprotected human bodies, and pretty much anything involving the Shroud. Much of the gore leads into this as well.
  • His Shroud infection gives Tails literal nausea fuel, as there are several scenes of him feeling too sick to get out of bed or vomiting into a toilet. His Shroud transformations are just as disgusting. Just to expand, his first transformation includes him ejaculating uncontrollably before his semen turns solid and starts slithering around his body.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The fanfic is known more for its outright anti-religion stance, which influences the portrayal of the Angel Federation, particularly the Islamic faction.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Chris Thorndyke is no longer a whiny, entitled, dependent brat. He's an utter Adaptational Badass who fights demon lords by himself and uses his intelligence to good effect.
• Strawman Has a Point: Maledict claims that without peace under his tyranny - despite all his atrocities and manipulation - life in the galaxy and the universe-at-large would be nasty, brutish, and short and that if they would've let him win in the first place, most of the war wouldn't have happened. And considering what Sonic and his friends encounter during the story, it's hard not to see his point. This trope is lampshaded in the rewrite by Sonic of all people, who says there may be a kernel of truth to it - but even a difficult freedom is better than simply being Satan's plaything.
• Tear Jerker: Episode 77 and 78. Tails's Heroic Sacrifice defeats Dark Tails and ends the Metarex war..
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • Before the rewrite, the story was strongly criticized for it by several reviewers. The Sonic characters were even bigger jerks than their original depictions. The extremely grimdark setting didn't help, with the entire universe doomed in an over-the-top Cosmic Horror Story filled with gruesome violence and a generous topping of Evil Versus Evil and Black-and-Gray Morality for good measure. Maledict and Tsali being absurdly overpowered didn't help. The author rewrote it several years later, partially to make it more upbeat - while the setting is actually darker than before, the story itself has a somewhat happier conclusion.
  • The author also discontinued the prequels Fall of the Seedrians and Battlestar Dandelion for being too bleak. In particular, the latter has Tsali (a genocidal mass-murdering fox android) as the protagonist against the Metarex in a blatantly Evil Versus Evil war, while Hertia and her people slowly descend into religious fanaticism, civil strife, and He Who Fights Monsters in their desperation to stay alive. And all of them are Doomed by Canon anyway.
• The Woobie: Dear god, does Chris experience a lot of horrifying suffering.

---