Sub-Episodes
Sub-episodes are side stories in the Sonichu comics, set apart from the main story of Sonichu. They are centred around Chris himself and are retellings of real-life events, largely relating to his Love Quest misadventures of the time.
Typically each sub-episode is inspired by some actual event in Christian's life that left him so utterly traumatized that he felt the need to express himself and tell his side of the story in comic form. The premise for the majority of them is presented as such; Chris is innocently loitering in a store somewhere until super-powered security guards demand that he leave the premises. Chris then uses his own super powers to fight back, and he is generally defeated, necessitating the arrival of one of his characters to save him. After his foes are vanquished so that they cannot make him leave, Chris delivers a self-important speech with an excessively specific, Chris-centric moral and leaves anyway. Even in his fantasy world, Chris manages to fail.
They are primarily Chris's way of seeking external validation -- by presenting these stories as injustices towards his good self, he hopes someone will read them and pity (and therefore love) him. For this reason the stories always assert Christian's righteousness while dwelling on his pain and suffering; Chris's plight is to be sympathised with whilst the jerkops are out to sabotage him and his quest for true love.
The first four sub-episodes appear in Sonichu #0-3. It could be argued that the Sonichu stories in these comics are nothing more than a Trojan-horse scheme to get people to read the sub-episodes, so they can learn what a special snowflake Christian is. Sonichu #4 is dedicated entirely to sub-episodes, reprising the first four and introducing four more, with Sonichu himself reduced to cameo appearances. This could be interpreted as Christian finding response to the initial sub-episodes insufficient, and trying to hammer his points home with a full-fledged all-Christian issue. This could also be because his mother told him that writing the sub episodes was a bad idea. On the other hand, by Sonichu #5 the sub-episodes are obsolete since Chris believes he has found a sweetheart, so it is also possible #4 was intended to clear out a backlog of these stories.
Trolls generally prefer the sub-episodes to the regular comics, as Chris's IRL exploits where he is trolled by mall security guards tend to be more amusing than the bland adventures of a Mary Sue Sonic recolor.
Whilst the later comics would lack sub-episodes, Chris's tendency to integrate actual events into his comic strips would continue to affect the overall story of Sonichu. This would come to a head in Sonichu #10, which has Chris resolve several of his real-life problems at the time within the confines of the comic book continuity.
- Sonichu 4 - The full collection of Sub-Episodes.