#All you guys out here acting like he's fucking Ken Penders and not basically the Sonic Equivalent of Tetsuya Nomura

[phantom-fleetways]

Hot Take:

If you decided to look below the cut, have these!! Some aimless doodles!!

They're just the foretellers from KH as their respective animals in Mobian form. I enjoyed drawing them and I don't plan on officially posting them on the blog cuz they were merely a concept exercise.

[thankskenpenders]

It's really late, but I'm now able to talk about The Thing that happened over on Sonic Twitter today. So...

Earlier today, a Sonic fan who goes by Awf (a regular question asker on the BumbleKast) started posting snippets from the court record for Archie Comics v Penders. Particularly, he highlighted sections from Archie's arguments about the existence of Ken's original contracts, and some things that they considered contradictory. This was later picked up on by news accounts like The Sonic Stadium, making it spread further. The original thread can be found here. And yes, naturally I have some thoughts...

While not exactly earthshattering, it is pretty interesting stuff to those interested in the specifics of the case, and some of it's also pretty funny. Penders used all sorts of arguments in court to try and discredit the incomplete 1996 contracts presented by Archie--they were forgeries, he might have signed them under false pretenses, he didn't remember signing them, all the hits. And without any solid evidence to back up his claims, too. (Previous accounts of the case have said that the forgery argument basically boiled down to "well a comic publisher would have all the tools and skills necessary to forge a document," which is just hilarious. Jimmy McGill would be proud.) Archie's legal team was so flabbergasted by all this that they said "Penders' argument is mere speculation and conjecture at best, and at its worst it is a perversion of our judicial system." What a shitshow, truly

But, of course... does this really change anything?

No. No, it doesn't

While it's always interesting to get new information about just how much of a circus that court case was, this is only a small window into it. The thread leaves out some key information, such as, you know... the fact that none of these arguments against Penders won the case for Archie. Their lawyers famously screwed up so bad that Archie fired and replaced their entire legal team in the middle of the lawsuit. (I'm unsure whether these statements are from the guys who got fired, or the new guys who replaced them.) The court was aware of all of this, which is why it's on the record in the first place. None of this is new information to the judge. And in the end, Penders and Archie settled, and he retained the rights to his characters and stories like he wanted

Does it at least change our understanding of events, though? No, not really. Because damn near the entire fandom already thought he was lying about the contract not existing. Hell, the prevailing myth that will just never go away is that he destroyed it himself

(For those unaware of the details: according to Archie, Ken's original work for hire contract was one of several destroyed in an accident at their on-site warehouse in 1996. After this, they hastily had Ken and others sign incomplete replacement contracts, such as the one that Ken claimed was a forgery or signed under false pretenses or whatever in court. While Penders destroying his own contract might make for a more entertaining story, I sincerely doubt he was playing a long game so that over a decade later he could copyright his shit. The contract was lost all the way back in 1996, when the team still thought Archie Sonic was just another licensed comic that they'd have to put to bed with issue #50. It's way easier to just buy that Archie was incompetent, given, you know... their woeful incompetence in this court case.)

So what we're left with is a bunch of randos in Ken's Twitter mentions acting like some screenshots of some court documents from ten years ago are going to suddenly make him lose his copyrights

Look. Sonic fans are not going to fucking Ace Attorney their way into a reversal of the decision of this case. You can't just skim through the court documents and hit the objection button when you see a contradiction to make Penders shit his pants and admit he's guilty of perjury. You, random Sonic fan #69420, are not going to change the outcome of this court case by formulating the perfect Twitter clapback. And you're sure as fuck not going to get your favorite Archie characters back in canon, and even if you did, Sega won't even use fucking Sally

And hell, the last thing we need is for the courts to set a precedent where a publisher can just say that they had a work for hire contract that signed away all of a creator's rights to their work if they can't actually produce said contract. Yes, obviously we all think that Ken's must have existed if he was working on Sonic at all in the first place, but come the fuck on. Think about this like an adult and not as a bitter Sonic fan. That would be an extremely dangerous precedent to set. They lost the contract, they fucked up, that's on them

I know it's fun to clown on Penders. You know I get that. Look at the URL of this blog. I am literally the second citation on his fucking Wikipedia page. Reading about how wild this case was is fun! But this obsession with trying to get Penders in trouble, with arguing with him and his five or so remaining stans on Twitter, with acting like there's a way to "beat" him? It's just not healthy. It's been years. You cannot tell the teacher on him and get him detention. It's over. These facts have been known by all of the parties that matter here for years, which is why it's in the damn court record. The case was decided by a judge. Archie fucked up. They didn't win, no matter how flimsy Ken's argument was or how many holes they poked in it. They had to settle. And everyone moved on

If you want a perfect fairytale ending where Penders gets his comeuppance, he's already living in creative purgatory. He's in his 60s and he's wasted the last decade of his life working on the ugliest fucking graphic novel ever made, and it's still nowhere near done despite supposedly being the first in a series of seven. As an artist his fate fills me with a deep existential dread that shakes me to my core. He's a sad little man whose work continues to fade deeper and deeper into obscurity, while most of the other people who worked on the series have moved on to bigger and better things, Sonic-related or otherwise

That is his karmic punishment for being such a jackass. The universe has spoken. It's not your job to punish him further. It's not your job to personally prove him wrong in his mentions. Let it go. He thrives off of the attention and will never relent. Don't let him drag you down with him. Just chuckle at the absurdity of it all and move on with your life

[another-sonic-blog]

@maishemicalromans​

(Sorry for posting this like this but Tumblr won't let me answer your ask properly, idk it's acting weird)

Alright, so I was going to post first the Silver character analyzation and writing tips but I’ll love to answer your question first since I think I need to put this out before the Silver post.

I want to first say that I am not doing this to talk negatively about the current writer of Sonic IDW’s comic. This is merely my opinion. An opinion of a fan, who although does not master the art of writing, I am still allowed to express it. However, I still believe that every opinion should be backed up with evidence and that’s what I am going to do. Sorry, if the answer is too long but I think what I am about to write is necessary.

I haven’t read the Archie comics because I heard that was a mess until Ian Flynn showed up, I read he wrote pretty good things. However, because of the whole mess with Archie Comics, SEGA implemented rules as to how people should write Sonic and friends. I don’t know how strict these rules are and if that’s the reason why Flynn is writing a very ‘unlikeable’ Sonic (In my opinion)

I am not here to talk about that but just putting that out there. I am not criticizing Flynn nor SEGA (If we had to blame someone it’ll probably be Ken Penders and SEGA but we don’t talk about that guy in here) but just the writing.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way I am going to say that there are 2 things that I STRONGLY DISLIKE about Sonic’s character in IDW.

1. Sonic manipulating Shadow

I don’t have words to express just how wrong it is to bring up someone’s past mistakes, use that against them and manipulate them. Yes, this is manipulation. Sonic is using Shadow’s insecurities to benefit him. How does even Sonic DARE to compare Shadow to Eggman? Eggman who has tried to conquer planets, destroy worlds, kidnap innocents, tortured him, tries to kill him (and friends) and started wars? Eggman does all of these when he is CONCIOUS, he does all of those things because he WANTS to. Shadow in the other hand, in SA2 he doesn’t want to destroy Earth but he is doing it because he CARED too much for Maria and the ‘promise’ he made to her. He did everything because of a PROMISE he made to a little girl, a sister, the person who cared for him. The person who sacrificed their life in order to protect him. How does that even compare to Eggman? Who only seeks destruction for his own benefit? Not only that but Shadow redeem himself. He helped save the planet and Shadow continues to help saving the world. He does this for multiple reasons but one of them is that he still regrets trying to destroy earth back at the ARK. He still remembers this incident and the regret still haunts him till this day.

Why would Sonic even bring this up? Sonic out of everyone must know the turmoil Shadow has been through and still he decides to use Shadow’s insecurities against him. He really went out and said “Look I am not saying you are wrong but remember that time you fucked up? Yeah that was bad, you were really evil back then too. You are in the same level as the person who constantly tries to kill me and my friends. Oh, but you saved the world multiple times? Yeah, I know and I don’t care. You are always making the wrong decisions, just listen to me because I am right. Your opinion is invalid because of the mistakes you made, because you were bad.”

Can’t he see Shadow’s hurt face? Can’t he understand how the words affected him? Shadow was again reduced to thinking that no matter what he does, he is always going to be seen as evil. That everyone will remember his mistakes and that no matter what, they will always remember that. Sonic just deepened that wound, he increased Shadow’s insecurity.

And Sonic still has the guts to smile? Boy, what the heck are you smiling at? You just denigrated Shadow the Hedgehog, a hero, to the likes of Eggman. Get out of here.

“Losing one’s memory doesn’t make them any less dangerous”

And you know what makes me sad the most?

That I am sure that Shadow saw himself in Mr. Tinker. Shadow said that he wanted to ‘destroy’ him. It makes me think that if Shadow could, he would also like to destroy the past version of himself. If the Shadow right now could go back to the past and destroy his past self … He would.

I am sure Sonic knows this. So, still it just makes me wonder why? Why Sonic the Hedgehog, a character who is said to always live in the ‘present’ looks backs at Shadow’s past mistakes and manipulates them to his benefit? To the benefit of a Eggman who he knows has brought pain to him, to his friends and the world?

You would think that after Sonic Lost World, Sonic would have learned something about listening to others or thinking before acting. Especially when the whole mess on Sonic Lost World was due that Sonic jumped into action without listening to Tails first. Shadow is really telling Sonic to not trust Eggman so easily for two reasons.

1. Experience, Shadow more than anyone knows that losing one’s memories does not make them any less dangerous. (No pun intended lol)

2. He is doing it to protect what is left of the world. In Sonic forces, it is stated that Eggman conquered 90% of the world (Or more, I don’t remember exactly) The world is basically in ruins and after the war they have begun to restore it. If Mr.Tinker remembers he was Eggman, the Resistance would be at a total disadvantage. They have no resources nor people … how can they win another war?

This bothers me as well …

Sonic doubted Eggman … and he still left him … unsupervised. Like why in the world you trust a man who has attempted to do genocide multiple of times?

2.   Sonic’s lack of guilty

This? Good

This? Bad.

“But heroes have nothing to be sorry about.”

           Can he just shut up?????

Was that really necessary to say? Honestly, he could would have said, “But she has nothing to be sorry about.” That would have been great.

Why?

When Sonic and Tangle are talking, he is actually apologizing. Tangle tells Sonic that he has nothing to be sorry about and that she knows that Sonic would make things right. At first, I thought Sonic was saying that Tangle was right to reassure her. That way, Tangle could get infected with some peace at her mind. She can go away thinking that her hero didn’t do anything wrong and that he will fix things for everyone.  However Sonic still thinks he is at fault.

That would have shown so more deepness in Sonic’s character. But no, Tangle got infected and he went ahead to make it about himself because he is that self-centered, right?

That line, ruined it. ‘But heroes have nothing to be sorry about?’

This whole thing really went down like:

Tangle: “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

Sonic: “Lmao you are right.”

Because that line wasn’t meant towards Tangle, NO it was meant for himself. He literally is saying that he has nothing to be sorry about. Now, I am not saying its Sonic total fault or that Sonic should be crying saying that he is sorry or something like that. What I am saying is that Sonic was really reckless, overconfident, and naïve (Which is no good because he already has enough experience dealing with Eggman, this can even be see as stupidity.)

Maybe Sonic it’s not at fault that Mr. Tinker got turned into Eggman, but Sonic DID contribute to the problem at hand. To an extent he is at fault.

Letting go of Metal Sonic even when there was the possibility of him turning evil? Of someone using him for their benefit?

Not listening to Shadow and recklessly leave Mr.Tinker alone when there is the possibility that Metal Sonic is looking for him? Or that they may encounter each other at some point?

Deciding to trust a criminal who constantly tries to kill you instead of trusting the hedgehog who saved the world, redeem himself and knows better of how dangerous people with amnesia can be because he himself has being there?

I think what bothers me the most is that we have already gone through this.

In Sonic Lost World, Tails pointed out that Sonic trusted Eggman more than him. Tails was right, Sonic did trust Eggman more. Sonic trusted Egmman to shut down his machine over Tails. (Sonic has seen Tails do amazing things, why wouldn’t he trust he can shut down a machine? IDK but oh well) Sonic even admitted to doubting Tails’ abilities and then went head and said he was never doubting him again.

So, watching this I was like alright. Sonic learned something, he developed. Sonic will trust his friends, listen to them and won’t doubt their abilities.

But then again, he decided to trust Eggman.

And the worst is that he is no showing remorse whatsoever? Even after they had been through a similar situation before?

He didn’t listen to Tails back then. He didn’t listen to Shadow now and because of that the world is at stake again.

To conclude all of this, I want to say that it just seems that Sonic hasn’t develop whatsoever. He hasn’t learned a thing and won’t ever develop if he keeps thinking that he wasn’t done anything wrong. Mistakes are good because you learn from them but at this point it seems that Sonic is so self-absorbed that he just won’t admit that he made a mistake. Because he is a hero, he always makes the rights decisions. There is just no way that he can be wrong.

Sonic is self-centered and self-absorb. Those are character flaws which would have been fine, the thing is that we have already gone through this and it seems like he didn’t improve at all. Or he is not even trying to improve.

Some may argue that Sonic is just good like that. That his character is made to see the good in everyone. Be good at all costs and accept people for who they are and of course that this fiction and the way the world interacts is different from our world. However, what makes a good character is how they react to different circumstances. You are trying to write a character that is relatable to us, but you can’t do that unless that character shows different sides. A character needs to make mistakes and overcome them, to be vulnerable.

Alright that’s it. This was all over the place lol. Anyways, it’s not terrible writing and like I said this is not to talk bad about IDW. I am just pointing out some of the things that I dislike. I really hope that on the next upcoming issues, Sonic at least develops a little. Maybe he starts to be a little bit insecure about himself or just doesn’t trust anyone that easily. Any type of improvement would suffice. I won’t stop reading IDW because at the end of the day I think the story is good. The characters are decently written and the story plot is pretty entertaining. I like how Flynn has done the other characters.

This is a pretty long post but I hope this the type of answer you wanted? Like I said I don’t like to give an opinion unless I have evidence to prove it. Anyways, thank you for asking! This was fun to write.

For my other followers who wanted a Silver Character analysis and writing tips, that would be up soon enough as well. Thank you!

[aquillis-main]

I’m sorry...

... Sorry that the OP still has no reading comprehension and doesn’t realize that my argument, and my friend’s argument, has never been about any of the Archie Sonic cast, only that Flynn decided to make one character a ‘redo’ of Snively because he thought that would ‘raise the stakes’.

You, along with your other Flynn white knight of a friend, need to apologize to both of us properly now, since you keep assuming that we haven’t read Archie Sonic. Newsflash: both the ‘near thirty-year old’ and myself (who is twenty-six, btw) have been in this fandom long before you were a glimmer in your parent’s eyes.

Toothpaste Snively is currently being used by the Encyclopedia Sonnica herself, so I don’t see why it isn’t funny. You must be butthurt about a fictional character so much to not see the fun in calling him that. Why would I need to give out Archie Sonic Panels to prove that Toothpaste Snively’s not the character he was at the start of IDW Sonic? You know, the reason why I’m saddened with his character? It’s almost like you never read between the lines, and needed your mommy to change your nappy for you.  Calling him anything else wouldn’t be as inventive, as Fiona was more forced to be kicked out by Flynn and to go against what little character she had for ‘Operation Cleanup’. Now, you’re taking this out of context bud. Toothpaste Snively was more unique as a character when he was practically simping for Eggman. Why would you bring Snively up? Because you want to prove how ‘bad’ our argument is about Snively? Well, sorry. You should have known that Snively as a character is really fucking bad about constantly betraying Eggman in Archie Sonic, to the point where he practically steals all of Eggman’s shit.

And you call yourself a ‘Sonic fan’. Sad. Anywho, Toothpaste’s Snively’s ‘expectations’ weren’t met, because Flynn thought it would be better if EGGMAN ACTED OUT OF CHARACTER AFTER FORCES, you know, the ONE GAME where he was constantly having a back-up plan in his sleeves, from having the Death Egg be the source of his power to breaking all the leftover Ruby copies he had. Flynn never bothered to work out Mr. Tinker properly, instead throwing him to the wayside and making Sonic act like Steven Universe for no reason to Metal Sonic so that Starline could get Eggman back. By the point the whole ‘issue’ of ‘Mr. Tinker fighting from the inside’ thing happened, Eggman had done this:

And then Eggman’s faceship proceeded to barf Rombie Virus over the town that helped him as Mr. Tinker.

... I dunno about you, but Mr. Tinker would never do that! /Sarcasm

If Eggman never acted OOC in the first place, Starline would have no reason to have left the doctor, instead he would forever simp for the Good Doc.

Also, Snively ass-kissed like a motherfucker.

Since you want the moment of Snively betraying people...

Snively Betrayed Hope by destroying her only home.

... I dunno about you, but I don’t think good and loyal people need to be trapped in a Animal Capsule like Snively does here.

The only natrual progression of Toothpaste Snively’s character was to reuse and copy what was already done. Our original statement... Was that Starline was going down a path that doesn’t fit his fucking character, and we liked him when he was a suck-up to Eggman more.

Now, I got to ask: Are characters like Mimic the Octopus basically Mephilies the Dark with as much motivation? Why was Zavok and the Deadly Six needed in the last bit of the Rombie Arc? Why do you assume that Flynn created the entire Archie Sonic Cast? He didn’t create the Iron Queen, she was already there when he was working on the comic. The Dark Legion was also not his creations either, that’s all Ken Penders’ toys. You know, the very guy who sued Archie to get his characters back? Even though they were all cut outs?

Why do you assume that the Iron Queen would work for Eggman? Unless, unless you think that characters are interchangeable, and can be perceived as anyone thanks to how Flynn and Stanley write.

Like I said, love Flynn all you want. I don’t mind if someone finds enjoyment from the comic. But I get very, very ass mad when someone tries to slander me and my friends, which is what you and your ‘friend’ have been doing. I wanted to keep liking the comic, myself. But honestly? I can no longer enjoy the comic since Flynn made Starline a Toothpaste Snively.

If you want to be treated like an adult, I’ll treat you like one. Stop hiding behind your age, as you clearly want to be owned by someone who knows what they’re talking about.

@ idw critics

stop calling starline a snively clone, you haven't read archie also you make bad takes. not everyone who works for eggman and leaves is snively, please get reading comprehension.