Chip

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Chip (チップ, Chippu^?) otherwise known as Light Gaia (ライトガイア, Raito Gaia^?) is a small, burgundy colored, yellow-eyed flying creature who debuts in Sonic Unleashed. He has a white tuft on the top of his head, similar to his tail, has tiny translucent turquoise wings on his back and a green bauble on his neck. He was first seen in a Japanese manga adaption of Sonic Unleashed. In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic wakes up after Dr. Eggman's Chaos Energy Cannon mutates him into a monstrous version of himself. Chip is seen lying on the ground nearby, and Sonic attempts to make sure that he is okay. Chip flies away, afraid at first, though he soon realizes Sonic is good.

Early Concept & Design

Early designs of Chip showed him being a fairy, ghost or a bird.

Chip was supposed to be named "Whip", in a reference to "whipped cream", which is the reason that whipped cream became an early design motif (for example, some early concepts had his hair like a dollop of whipped cream). However, because the word whip has different connotations in English (including the act of punishment, whipping, or suffering injury, as in the termwhiplash), Sega of America was not pleased with the name, so they changed the name to Chip.

History

Light Gaia is Chip's real name. Born in the beginning of time, Light Gaia is the opposite of Dark Gaia, and is the representation of light, day and rebirth. His purpose is to put the world back together when Dark Gaia destroys it. Dark Gaia dwells within the Earth's core for eons, feeding on the negative feelings and energies of the Earth's denizens, and emerging when it has grown strong enough. It is then Light Gaia's job to defeat Dark Gaia and return it to the Earth. Though he protected the planet over eons, Light Gaia never came to learn about the world itself.

He awoke alongside Dark Gaia when Dr. Eggman broke the world apart with his Chaos Energy Cannon. Due to this premature awakening, however, he lost his memories, forgetting who he was and his ancient duty. Shortly after, he is found by Sonic the Werehog, who had just landed on Earth after he had been ejected from Eggman's space ship. At first he was scared of Sonic in his Werehog form, but then he realizes that he means no harm. As they introduce themselves, Chip realizes that he had lost his memories and panics. Sonic assumes that he had fallen on him and had caused his amnesia, and as Chip calms down, Sonic promises him to help him regain his memories, which Chip is overjoyed about. Shortly after, as the day breaks, Chip witnesses Sonic's first transformation back to his old self, apparently amazed by it.

As the two of them arrive in Apotos, Chip's attention is caught by the local Ice Cream Vendor and his "Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme", which he takes a instant liking to.

From then on, Chip follows Sonic on his adventure across the globe to put the planet back together. Along the way, they learn that Chip is able to activate the Gaia Temples which is needed to recharge the Chaos Emeralds; and thus bring the world back together. This proves to be a valuable assist in Sonic's quest.

It is not until Sonic restores the sixth Chaos Emerald that he regains his memories, by touching a stone picture inside the sixth Gaia Temple. He explains to Sonic his and Dark Gaia's history, the cause of his memory loss and the reason why Sonic remains the same person, even in his Werehog form. He proceeds to thank Sonic for showing him the world he had protected for so long, but didn't know anything about and says he would never ever forget him. He then tries to continue on his own, since restoring the planet and defeating Dark Gaia is his job and that Sonic doesn't have to get involved, but Sonic convinces him to letting him help him anyway.

As they are in the process of restoring the final continent, Chip believes that it is all over and he thanks Sonic for all his help, but suddenly they are attacked by Eggman and his Egg Dragoon. Sonic manages to save Chip from the Egg Dragoon's initial attack and manages to defeat it after a hard battle that leads to the core of the planet, but then, the reassembled Dark Gaia emerges from the core and knocks Eggman away. It proceeds to fight Chip and Sonic, sucking out its power from Sonic that caused his Werehog transformation and regains all its lost power. It then tries to attack them again, but Chip saves them by creating a shield that protects them from Dark Gaia's assault.

In order to defeat Dark Gaia, Chip creates the Gaia Colossus out of the seven Temples of Gaia and after a long battle, assisted by Sonic, Dark Gaia appears to be defeated. Instead, however, it reaches full maturity and becomes Perfect Dark Gaia. Seeing the level of the threat, Sonic uses the recharged Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, and with him and the Gaia Colossus working together, Perfect Dark Gaia is defeated and sealed back in the planets core.

In the end, as the planet begins to piece itself back together, Chip throws the exhausted Sonic back up to the Earth's surface and allows himself to be resealed within the Earth along with Dark Gaia. When Sonic comes to, he sees Chip lying unconscious on the ground, similar to their meeting, but it turns out to be an illusion as he quickly disappears. However, his necklace remains on the ground. Sonic puts the necklace on as a bracelet as Chip assures him telepathically that he will never forget him, and that he will always be with Sonic, a part of the Earth he treads. Due to his sacrifice it is unknown if he will return in future Sonic games, though it's unlikely.

Other appearances

Sonic Generations

In Sonic Generations, Chip appears in the credits in a clip from Sonic Unleashed, and as a statue in the hidden statue room.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

In this third installment of the Mario & Sonic (series) series, a Chip costume can be earned by playing the game for five hours. Charmy Bee gives the costume as a present and the costume can then be placed on any Mii and then played as in any event in the game.

Sonic World Adventure (manga)

Chip is the main character from the manga that is based on Sonic Unleashed. Similar to that of the video-game, Chip meets Sonic when he falls from the sky, and Sonic agrees to help Chip recover his memory since Sonic thought it was his fault that Chip started suffering from amnesia. At the day time they reach a village called Apotos, in there Chip wanted ice cream, so when he found out that there is an ice cream vendor selling ice cream he goes in and accidentally breaks the shop. The ice cream vendor was panicking because his shop broke down and Chip was telling Sonic that, "I want ice cream! If there is no shop, then there will be no ice cream! Then I would be really hungry!", Sonic, thinking to himself that it was actually Chip who broke the store, so it is his fault he gets annoyed by Chip. Sonic then promises the ice cream vendor that he'll fix his shop later. Sonic and Chip leave to find materials for the repairs. Chip is very happy to help, but ends up finding food instead of construction material. Sonic scolds him, saying it's not the time to look for food, but Chip is already picking up apples for the future ice cream, and even though Sonic scolds him some more, Chip manages to find a strawberry. Sonic kicks him in the head, and leaves annoyed. After defeating a few Egg Fighters, Sonic found out that he can use the broken Egg Fighters to make the vendor's shop, when Sonic shows the shop, the vendor thanks him. Now that Chip found out that he could get ice cream, he wanted to be the first customer, but when he reached there, the Egg Fighter (who was the shop) shot him with ice cream.

The other part of the manga (which is Chapter 2) is exactly like the events in the video game (only the part when Sonic and Chip first met). When they met, Chip got scared off his werehog form and punched Sonic's eyes, telling him that he tastes bad, when Chip found out that Sonic is actually a very "gentle person", he becomes overjoyed when Sonic agrees to get his memory back, in the end Chip goes on saying, "Yay! It's Sonic's fault that I don't remember anything! Now Sonic will have to give me ice cream!", while Sonic was bothered by Chip's actions.

Personality

Chip loves chocolate, which he carries throughout the story. He also offers many people a chocolate bar when he meets them as a sign of friendship. He loves food a lot, as seen in one cutscene in Apotos; Sonic is trying to talk to him, but he is distracted by an ice cream stand and completely ignoring him. When they work with Tails to save the kidnapped Professor Pickle, he is mostly concerned that the Professor might be starving to death, though Tails assures him that Eggman is feeding him; even Eggman isn't that cruel. Chip is playful and somewhat not that smart and goofy. Before a boss, he will act threatening and scary (a contrast to how he isn't, as seen in Sonic: Night of the Werehog, where he is genuinely terrified of the ghosts in the mansion that he and Sonic visit and even faints dead away after Sonic teasingly scares him with a flashlight). Chip is one of the few people who can actually annoy Sonic. Especially when Sonic is a Werehog.

Abilities

Despite his small size and appearance, Chip is amongst the strongest characters in the Sonic series, possessing a level of power comparable or equal to Dark Gaia itself. As an living embodiment of light, Chip possesses the ability to manipulate light energy, allowing to him to create force fields of light and amplify his own attacks with light energy. Just like Dark Gaia, Chip can draw power from his element (the day and light) to fuel him. He can also achieve flight with the wings on his back and can fly fast enough to keep up with Sonic.

Chip shares a strong connection with the Gaia Temples and can control their inner workings at will. With the aid of the Chaos Emeralds, Chip can call all seven temples to his current location and combine them to form the Gaia Colossus.

Relationships

Sonic the Hedgehog

There is no one more close to Chip than Sonic, and the two of them are great friends. Sonic first met Chip when he fell from the sky to Earth, when Chip first saw him, he was a Werehog, that look of Sonic frightened Chip and he thought that Sonic was going to eat him. Then Chip realized that he is a nice guy and thanked him for being concerned about his health. Sonic agreed to help Chip with his memory as he couldn't remember anything, not even his own name. Sonic decided to call him "Chip" even when in the end of Sonic Unleashed, Chip got his memory back and told Sonic that his real name is "Light Gaia", however in the end of the game when Sonic passed out lying almost dead on the floor, but heard Chip's voice from somewhere, he whispered, "...Chip...".

Chip also seems to bug Sonic, and thus, Sonic also seems to bug Chip like in Sonic: Night of the Werehog, when Chip didn't want to go in the mansion because he was scared, Sonic just went in, leaving Chip making a "whiny" and "scared" expression.

Sonic and Chip also seem to enjoy engaging in friendly competition. As shown in a bonus cutscene, where Sonic and Chip humorously did battle over a dumpling, which ended in Chip eating the dumpling whole, but crash landing in a decorative clay pot and getting his head stuck, while Sonic laughed helplessly at the display.

In one cutscene Chip said that he'll never forget Sonic and that Sonic is his best friend, he also said that Sonic is so generous that no evil can affect him. When Chip found out his duty, he started going on his own, Sonic stopped him and asked where was he going, Chip told him that their is no reason for him to come to help, Sonic replies,"Do I need a reason to want to help a friend?", then Chip thanked Sonic for being so nice. In the end of the game, Sonic falls from space to Earth and hallucinates Chip lying on the floor, when Sonic comes closer, the image of Chip disappears, but the collar wasn't a hallucination, Sonic then kept the collar as a bracelet and hears Chip's echoing voice saying that he'll always be there for him .