#Me: I want to talk about why I think sonic prime and idw sonic are running an interesting character study on Sonic and the ways in which

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

That feeling you get when you want to write essays about the hyperfixation media but you can't because they require the prerequisite of reading/understanding other even larger essays (since they are the basis of understanding for the other essays) that you also haven't written

[sevenrenny]

I might as well ask you this because I enjoy your writing and way of expressing your opinions. Why do you personally ship Sonamy? What got you into Sonamy? What’s your favorite moment between the two? I know this is a very common question, but I hope you don’t mind me asking. 😅

Oh, this ought to be fun XD I don't mind at all. Send all the asks you like, I like to talk about my interests. I tend to ramble, so excuse my long texts. Gonna insert a break line so I don't torture my followers (that sentence makes it sound like I'm running a cult.)

Why do you personally ship Sonamy? What got you into Sonamy?

These two are connected, so it's fair to answer them both in one go. I'm very new to the fandom, unlike most of the people I've met who've been here for as long as they can remember. I originally had no interest in the franchise. Yeah, I played some games and watched the anime a few years back and had some cheap plastic toys from fast-food kiddie meals, but the franchise never stuck with me back then.

I got reintroduced through Sonic Prime around last year, which led to me reading the IDW comics, which is where I started getting into SonAmy. I really liked Amy in particular; surprising, seeing as she hadn't been my favorite character as a child. I liked Tails and Silver more back then, but the comic solidified Amy as my number one. In every fandom I've been in (HTTYD, MHA) I almost always gravitate toward characters who embody love, and that's the core of Amy.

Sonic was harder for me to decipher at first, seeing as he's more of a person who shows his emotions through action rather than words (in some iterations, at least.) But seeing him be more receptive in the comics and treating her better in more recent media portrayals piqued my interest because this wasn't how I remembered these two from when I was a kid. Seeing the progression from how their dynamic started to how it became made me feel proud of them.

And I'm one of those who likes to hypothesize that their affection used to be more one-sided but became mutual over time. Things change. Feelings change. People change. And I love that.

What’s your favorite moment between the two?

This. I think this is when I started seeing the ship as something I'd like. I've inserted the second panel as well because, while I know the first one is a no-brainer for some SonAmy shippers, I don't see many of them bringing up the follow-up panel.

Before this scene, Sonic kept rejecting Amy's proposal to go back to the Resistance with her (he had his reasons, as he saw investigating the circumstances of Eggman's absence and the waves of Badniks as a higher priority. Get to the snake's head to find the root of the problem.) He was in a hurry to get going. It wasn't until Amy told him she loved him for who he was and that she didn't want to change him that he stopped, got a little flustered, and proposed she come with him instead.

And she declined. She, too, had priorities.

Before this moment, it was possible he didn't see having both Amy and his stubborn way of doing things his way possible, but after, it might've finally clicked in his head that, Oh wait, I can have both? He's asked Amy to come along with him for other adventures afterward.

Also, can I just say how much I appreciate Sonic (who has a history of being touch averse) being more welcoming to her affection? Cause I do.

Okay, switching to Frontiers:

This scene is mostly quiet (I like nonverbal communication in general) and I found it too adorable to not mention. It's just for a few seconds, but the way Sonic does a little giddy skip when she waves him over, and the the fact that he just smiled so innocently the whole time he made his way over is just pure sweetness.

This short little misunderstanding/confrontation. This one's just plain fun for me. Sonic's impatience and inability to articulate his reasoning leads to him sounding like he's abandoning the Koco Amy really wants to help. She's putting the Koco before herself when Sonic's just worried about her. As soon as the misunderstanding is cleared up, Amy calms down, seeing it from his point of view now. It's a subtle little exchange, but knowing how these two used to not be great at communication in past games, and seeing them now deescalate a little misunderstanding this calmly brings me joy.

With each Koco the characters help, there's a certain theme associated between the Koco and Sonic's friends. The inventor Koco and Tails, trying to be of use to others; the soldier Kocos and Knuckles, both who had their people wiped out. For Amy, the Koco (the only Koco who goes by they/them, so that's what I'll be using for them here) is trying to reunite with their lover who had gone into battle. Throughout the game, Amy in her ghostly form can't touch anyone, and she expresses symptoms of dissociation, of feeling 'detached', that she's flying in a dream, but she wishes to just land.

Remember, Amy is a physically affectionate person, but she can't do much of anything, let alone feel anyone, in this situation. She has to leave it to her love, Sonic, to go into battles. She knows all too well how the Koco was feeling, being separated from their lover. When Amy and Sonic watch the Koco reunite with their partner for the last time, it hits Amy hard, and Sonic knows how affected she is by this. He gives her some time to grieve because he knows her well enough to understand this hit her hard. He tells her, "They're together now." And that's all that matters. And I love that scene. It's so mild compared to what others in the community might bring up, but I'm a sucker for the quieter moments like this.

I have to stop myself now before this turns into a novel lol

[skaruresonic]

I don't really think seniority matters as much as the willingness to research and play the games. I'm not sure if I feel comfortable calling myself a "veteran" fan, because while I technically have played a lot of Sonic games, my knowledge base doesn't feel comprehensive enough outside of the general range of the early Adventure games to warrant discussion. Can't talk about TSR or Riders, for instance, because racing games bore me and so I never finished them. Or '06, which I refuse to finish on the basis of it being an utter soul-suck of a game. I've been a Sonic fan since 2002, though sometimes I forget that fact because I go through "gap years" in which I feel distant from the series for some reason or another. Back in 2006-2010 it was the inability to play new releases because broke. In 2014, it was Boom, which everyone was sort of... weird... about. Nowadays it's the alienation I feel for the utter hype surrounding IDW, Prime, and Frontiers. This ride is for life, but it's not always a smooth one.

In addition, real life needs attending to, my knowledge of the games tends to become hazy and vague after a while, and I don't necessarily have the time to play and refresh my memory. There are also details about the games that I've overlooked the first time around, such as the fact that Sonic and Shahra both call the antagonist "the" Erazor Djinn multiple times throughout SatSR, implying his name is a title, as opposed to fandom which simply refers to him as "Erazor Djinn," implying it is a name.

I've been in the privileged position of growing up with my preferred era of games. During my childhood, a new Sonic game would come out roughly every year. These days it's harder to access that era of games because some of them, like Shuffle or Battle, are abandonware.

While these roadblocks are real and valid, on the other hand... In this age of having practically any information you want to know available at your fingertips, it's no excuse to just Say Whatever you want about those games. There's the inability to access the game, and then there's the refusal to meet it halfway. Far too often you encounter the latter over the former.

Certainly, I won't pretend to know about every single Sonic game there is. That's why I don't talk about them. I talk instead about the handful of games I do know about. Hopefully, I might say something interesting about them every once in a while. hello yes can I gush about those semi-transparent reflections in SA2 DC I promise I'm normal about it

The other day @woodchipp and I were talking about how modern fandom seems to base their impressions of a game on "vibes" rather than playing the games for themselves. This is how you get wild takes divorced from reality, when folks value aesthetics over accuracy. In any case, my stance has always been that you don't necessarily have to know every single little detail about any given game; you just need to know what you're talking about in a general overarching sense. I'll know you haven't played the game when you neglect basic, unmissable plot points.

For example: "Tails found Emerl on the beach in Battle" tells me you haven't played Battle, because Sonic finding Emerl on the beach is what kickstarts the entire game. "SA2 never shows us where Shadow stole the Chaos Emerald from" tells me you haven't played SA2, because the game specifies that detail twice - once in recap, once during a cutscene - and you would have known that had you been paying attention.

[sonicjustbecause]

I understand something about Sonic Fandom (general).

I'm one of the first hour Sonic fans, altthough I never was a 'hardcore' sonic fan. Also because at that time, being an hardcore fan was frowned down even when you were a child. When I was too into a fandom (Smurfs, when I was 6 or 7, before becoming a Sonic fan), my mum used to tell me: 'Now stop, they're not real!'. And I was not the only one. We could enjoy what we loved, but there were limits to fanatism. So every fandom was healthy, or grew up knowing how to approach a fandom in a healthy way. I also used to write fanfictions on occasions, even at school, I think first or second grade.

I was not the only Sonic fan around. I remember introducing my friends in the Sonic fandom, plus finding other people who already knew Sonic. In the '90s, the most loved character was Tails (I wonder why later he got so much hate).

In '00's and 10's I was mostly into Dragon Ball fandom, not much into Sonic fandom. The Dragon Ball fandom is a healthy one. I don't remember team Goku VS team Vegeta being one against the other. Even when one of the two was hated.

I decided only recently to give Sonic fanbase a try. I like Sonic stuffs, sharing art etc, I enjoy those cute characters. Unlike other fanbase, Sonic fandom has a bad reputation, so I watched about that... well...

There are fans who are fine. I have complained about some fans of Sonic Prime having tunnel vision and being focused only on Shadow, but from their post they seem chill (well, Shadow is that fine blend between pure cuteness and pure darkness). IDW comics are mostly bad but their readers are chill. I'm very casual yet very picky, there are only few Sonic character I would save and I hate nmost characters who came after adventure, especially Silver or those like Mephiles that I would rather name Shadow.EXE. I'm also not fond in many minor characters like the Chaotix, Mighty and Ray. But most Silver fans and others fans are chill people. Is interesting to talk with them and to hear different point of view.

I have problems with the hardcore fans. If they are disappointed by a Sonic game or a Sonic show, they react as if you offended their mother or their soulmate. They sound whiny and complaining and seldom focus on the part they love instead. Is like Sonic is their life, they remember me the 'ultras' of soccer, I would not trust them. I also avoid interacting with them because I don't want to feed their unthealty obsession, they might do something crazy (judging certain things they wrote) against other or even theirselves. even when they write something I agree, I prefer to avoid to like and share their post. Every fandom has those guys but in Sonic fandom this thing is more visible.

★+ Cuteness + Darkness...

[prowerprojects]

I feel like this is a growing side effect of fans being starved from Tails being the non-action tech guy for so long to where Forces caused a boiling point for so many, some are latching onto Nine or IDW in spite of it. (I argue Tails got drowned out often even back then when characters like Shadow, Silver, and Blaze were a huge talking point back in the 2000s. But still in good standing before Unleashed and Colors.)

While I'm glad the movie and Prime made Tails in general a big talking point again; more positively this time, I am mixed on it coming at the expense of his Modern self. MOSTH and Modern being playable again later in Frontiers is a start, but he's probably not going to really shake this off until he goes solo for a bit in a upfront way. (That, and having more interactions outside of Sonic to show off more of his character. Love their bond, don't love how fans treat it so one-sided when discussing it.)

Anon, you're probably right.

(Though I don't really see what is there to latch onto in idw, he doesn't really do much? I wouldn't even say his characterization is bad, it's just that he kinda. Exists around. I see people hype up idw Tails and I'm like. Wow no wonder people think he's boring and lame if this is what passes for good Tails representation)

The thing with Unleashed and Colors is interesting, because I feel like the characters who had good early portrayals (the aforementioned Blaze, Shadow and Silver) but hadn't appeared since are still remembered as competent and cool characters because this characterization is still fresh in people's minds even though it was so long ago, while due to Tails having more appearances he's more remembered for the more recent ones... (and probably there's a part of "Why can't my supercool fave be in this game, why is Tails here, he's lame!")

I feel there's also the thing that all of those characters had very... impressive introductions. No matter how bad the writing for Shadow gets people can go back to his introductory game and remember what he was invisioned to be as a character, etc.

But Tails's backstory is all in the manual. He even has a little character arc (seeing Sonic, becoming more optimistic and learning to fly/run fast enough to keep up with Sonic, meeting Sonic for the first time and following him into battle), and it's not only only in the manual, it happens before the events of the game itself. Even Knuckles has more of a character arc/involvement in his introductory game plot. (This is how we ended up with early adaptations where Tails thinks that math is yucky and hard despite canon Tails literally being an engineer) Tails just. Doesn't get to make the same impression, and never will, because he's a 30+ old character and that ship has sailed. (And it's ironic to see how people latched onto Nine since he's technically having the same arc, it's just like you know... Show, don't tell. It really works. (And also he's angsty, that helps too))

Yeah... I love people being excited about versions of Tails from adaptations, but it really brings me down when people use them to talk shit about mainline Tails. You know what this reminds me of? When there's a new Scooby Doo adaptation and everyone is like "Finally they fixed Daphne so she's competent and isn't a damsel in distress anymore". And it's like. Do you know anything about Daphne. And. Why are you giving credit to the adaptation for doing something that has always been a thing?

I'm not expecting Frontiers to break through Tails's public image either, but I hope he at least has an enjoyable gameplay so people could be like "Wow that was fun! I wish Sega would make even more games where you could play as Tails!" :3c And then maybe we could get this "solo adventure".

(Though the way it's worded in Frontiers it's more of a "Tails is going to the mountains to train" than "Tails is becoming a solo operation". Like he clearly just wants to get "stronger"(in a broad sense of the word. Though personally I think what he actually needs is to stop basing his self worth on his usefulness and Sonic's opinions. Ironically if he was more like Sonic in this way he would be happier) and is expecting to get back to Sonic at some point. I could live with this though, I don't mind it at all as long as he's actually treated as Sonic's partner afterwards rather than a cute accessory that Sonic talks to so he doesn't look weird talking to the broken robots.)

I love tmosth! Ian Sr is such a good writer, honestly I don't know about his abilities to write a cool adventure plot, but he has the character voices nailed down! (Except for maybe kleptomania jokes with Rouge) But Tails was so good! He was basically a co-protag with Barry (they had a very cute dynamic), we saw him interacting with other characters who aren't Sonic (honestly he and Sonic barely interact with each other there at all), he took charge of the investigation and got to show off his smarts beyond "I fix this broken thing like it's magic"(Though he did that as well!), and he was still shown to be insecure and childish at times, it's just *clenches fist* so good.

Sorry had to take a break to gush, this post was becoming too negative ahaha. Ok back to it.

The Unbreakable Bond thing. Yeah... I also love their relationship, but the fact that Tails doesn't really have developed relationships with the rest of the cast makes him feel very isolated and like his life revolves around Sonic. Even Amy and Knuckles, whose most developed relationships are with Sonic as well, have other characters that they interact with without Sonic being involved, (or at least used to interact with), like Rouge or Cream. Who does Tails have? Professor Pickle? Barry? Please. Tails is getting suffocated by the soulmate bond.

(And I don't love to criticize how other fans engage with the franchise because I also have my silly headcanons and interpretations. Like. I literally hc Tails as nonbinary which he isn't, in canon, as far as I'm aware. But. Yeah sometimes it feels like people are more into the idea of Sonic having a little brother that he can dote on. Rather than, you know. Sonic & Tails's actual relationship. Like I literally saw someone say (genuinely as far as I could guess) "Sonic sacrificed so much to raise Tails" and like. Ok. It's time to step back a little and look at the actual canon content. Sonic didn't even know where Tails's house was in sa1, what exactly is he sacrificing with such attentive parenting I wonder. But I do also love cute brotherly bonding stuff so. (One of the reasons why I love aosth so much, though there are other reasons as well. Also while I'm complaining, nobody understands the "Mom, Dad and the Picket Fence" thing.))

Sorry if this post got a big edgy at times, sometimes I start going and slip into it a little bit, even though I'm generally trying not to complain too much about the stuff I don't like and instead focus on the things I do.

[cosm1cbrownie]

unironically i kinda hate how sonic feels and acts in newer media (specifically prime and a bit of idw)

rant/tangent time wooo

note: might be a bit unorganized due to this being on my old azz galaxy s7 edge lol

alright. So i just finished reading the idw sonic comics allll the way up to the the most recent side comic, Scrapnik Island #4.

So like, while reading the main idw comic i kinda felt like.. sonic was just kinda a dick near the end for no reason??? Like yeah hes mostly fine in the beginning but once we get to the point where people put these high expectations on him and hes basically under a lot of pressure (which i understand) but i feel like the way they are characterizing him is just :

"haha sonic doesnt care and acts on inpulse like a dick and doesnt recognize the shit hes done and is basically a little shit lmao he also is just kinda and idiot and seems to forget things on the basis of when it most convient for him !!!"

i didnt really feel much of it in idw until the later chapters, but it started to get prevalent when i was reading these in between me watching Sonic Boom. (The Show, which is my favorite outside of AOSTH.)

Now personally, i think Sonic Boom's charactasation of Sonic is probably the best one we have had in a long while. Although its a comedy, i like how sonic is aware of what's going on and takes into account what his friends are suggesting.

Like the episode where he does something that affects a citizen of the town, (minds going blank on what the towns name is lmao) and when his friends (and the other villagers) let him join the whole "talk about our feelings" club thing,

at first, he opposes the idea of apologizing saying that calling people "people" isnt bad, (ik this was played for jokes it still supports my argument.) they encourage him to recognize that what he did was wrong,, and they tell him to go apologize, and he does, albeit with a bit of "ok fine i admit it pls go away" but atleast he doesnt outright deny it or seem stupid for trying to do so and failing.

Thats my issue with prime, sonic just seems like an oblivious idiot who doesnt recogize how to read the damn room and listen to his friends when it matters most. He acts like a tiny child, which doesnt make sense to me, because hes been through adventures and times similar to this and for most of the newer media they dont wanna recognize sonics shortcomings and upbringings as a character at all??????? Like i think frontiers got it right with the story, and sonic who understood what was going on and stopped every once in a while to smell the roses and help his friends!

But in newer media outside of frontiers, it seems like sonic doesnt know how to smell the fucking roses every once in a while and stop thinking on impulse, like they are making him seem like he only acts on impulse, all the damn time, with no regards of what was or is being said to him or even taking it into account???

Like yes, we fucking get it sonic can sometimes act on impulse when hes in a stressful situation thats what makes him seem real, makes him seem human.

But, when you make him into this douche canoe who acts on inpulse all the time, disregards his friends when it matters most, and casually dissapoints them when ever he feels like it, or when it benefits him (cough cough the picnic scene in prime), i dont think most people would want him to have a good time, which im sure is the reason why most people, including myself, thought sonic deserved that punch from shadow. (who is great in prime btw, was okay in boom too but needed more time to flesh him out outside of 3 eps hes supper immature and i love him lmao) He's a dick. And i dont like him.

So, i hope to god they rewrite sonics character in prime s2 because he was unrionically just a giant fuckin dick instead of a snarky but caring 'anti hero' (like in boom) and that makes me really mad grahhhh

[also side tangent i dont hate prime (lemme make this clear) this whole sonic rant was just me nitpicking how sonic is currently in media outside of frontiers

ALSO ALSO SIDE TANGENT 2 HOW DID THEY FUCK UP SONIC SO BAD BUT GOT SHADOW ALL GOOD AND SHIT????? WHATT???? BRO THEY ARE POLAR OPPOSITE CIRCLE GRAPHS WHICH OVERLAP THEY ARE NOT THAT HARD TO MAKE SOBS INTENTLY]

[beevean]

Your post about the Sonic fandom has made me contemplate if it would be best for me to cut myself off from it. Someone like me has no place in it as it currently is, and by proxy, as the franchise itself currently is, and I rarely get the opportunity nowadays to talk about anything that isn't IDW, Frontiers or Prime... only for me to then get screamed at for being negative about those things. There's just no winning, and I don't know what else I can do. Any advice?

I don't know, I'm just doing what I want.

I don't want to drop Sonic. I also feel like I cannot drop Sonic even if I wanted to: I spent the last 5 years extensively talking about it, it's been my main fandom for most of my life, most of my followers and friends come from the fandom, I can change my icon and my header but I can't change who I am :P

I guess I just... don't want to bother with things I don't like. Sure, venting feels nice, but that's it, venting, I don't have the energy anymore for huge essays. I said my piece regarding Frontiers' story, regarding IDW and its waste of an arc, I literally could not care less about Prime, and now I get bitchy anons proclaiming that I do not deserve sympathy and I am a bully and I brought it all on myself and no wonder I alienate people. You get to a point where you just have to ask yourself, why should I care? Why do I have to be in an awful mood because I can't like what everyone else likes and feel like there is something wrong with me? Why do I have to complain? I can like things, I just have to look elsewhere.

Maybe you can talk to @colony-drop-program and @spinningbuster98, who are going through a similar thing. I don't know what advice I can give you other than "don't bother with discourse and find stuff that makes you happy". You want to reblog 10 posts in a row about the scenery in Spyro games? Go for it! You want to post sneak peeks of Stellar? Go for it! You want to unfollow everyone except for your friends? Go for it! You want to quit Tumblr and make a Discord server? Go for it!

And disable anons while you're at it :P

Sorry if I rambled for nothing. I'm myself really bad at dropping stuff, so I don't know how you can effectively step away from a fandom, outside of growing out of it on your own. I think it's all a matter of learning to stop giving a fuck.

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

id like to start this post with a link to a fundraiser masterpost and a reminder to do your daily clicks.

as i mentioned in my last post, i probably wont be posting about anything scu-related in the future, at the very least not anything praising it. if i reblog shadow referencing a keanu reeves role, my bad, ive only seen so many things with him in it. if i reblog scu art that i think is just mainline, my bad, i wasn't thinking. im gonna be honest i dont even think ill do little things, like stobotnik but in mainline context, though i will say, stobotnik mainline au may be like. the 1 exception??? because i do like the ship??? but thats the complete extent of what ill post, if that.

a part of me wants to say "but this is spoiling other people's fun!" and then the other part of me says "by not giving a platform to actors and a company that is complicit in genocide" and it shuts up the first half pretty easily. remember that considering everything, while yes it's likely to have very anti-military, anti-us themes, there is a chance both knuckles and sonic 3 will contain hidden pro-israel propaganda. if it wasnt obvious, i don't want to post about israeli propaganda.

for anyone who knows me personally, or at least messages me, im more likely to be more leniant seeing as. well. it's not public. but im still not sure if ill talk about it unless it comes up in conversation???

ik i have a handful of people here who are mostly scu fans, possibly even scu exclusive. ig im sorry??? i can understand why theres a lot of scu fans, so i suppose if you like scu but you also want to stop posting about it, may i recommend some OTHER things to try (this is a long list so buckle up:

hop (2011) has a similar plot to sonic 1 and has james marsden (who is also not a good person but i dont think even universal would care if youre pirating hop (2011))

a really good place to start is honestly the snapcube dubs!!! you might get a few spoilers from context clues but theyre a really fun way to get to know games a little bit! obviously, theres a big barrier of there only being 5 dubs of 4 games, but i feel like once youve watched the dubs you can sort of get into the rest of her videos from there (theres also. theres this one. this one series. that people like. btw.)

while yeah i recommend the games, theyre sort of hard to know where to start. all i can really say is, dont start from forces or frontiers, at least know the plot of sa2 and thats basically it. ig if you want to play EVERY game, you dont really need to play anything before sonic 3 & knuckles and even then you can still start from sonic adventure and learn the plot of s3&k

NiGHTS is fun but also youll learn nothing about sonic i just wanted to mention it

if youre more into the action, i recommend sonic prime (and also, a few fix-it-fics or rewritten endings)

i recommend sonic boom if you want the comedy* and the characters living (mostly) normal lives. also you can literally watch most of sonic boom for free on youtube idc if im biased i will die on the hill of it being the best sonic canon. yeah im even including rise of lyric. no i have not played rise of lyric. do not mention the wasted potential of the concepts or i will explode.

*no offense but sonic boom is way funnier. idc if im biased because the sonic films are honestly only a step up from mcu humour most of the time, if that

if you want lore, i recommend the comics rather than the games, seeing as its slightly daunting where to start with the games. for a slightly more sanitised and. ig "normal" experience, read either idw or post-reboot archie. but if you want things to get a little wild theres pre-reboot archie. the only archie comics ive read are sonic boom and NiGHTS, so im not speaking from experience. but. wow. theres a lot to unpack there

if for whatever reason you just want sonic thats completely different to the games, i recommend sonic the comic and any of the 90s cartoons!!! theyre honestly really fun and because theyre so early on in sonic history (?) theres so many inconsistencies

sonic the fighters is fun but also you literally will never have to play that ever and its hard to find anyway

im pretty sure ive mentioned every canon there??? and a few things i dont need to lol. but the point is, if you are a fan of scu, you arent immediately a bad person! BUT (and here's the bit you actually have to listen to): if you are posting and praising the scu, particularly the upcoming projects, you are giving a platform to a large chunk of zionists.

[idw-sonic-fan-blog]

Where would Sonic Frontiers fit in IDW Sonic?

I know Ian said don’t think about it, but oh well. He created Starline and that permits me to think about his work anyway I want. And it’s easier to think about than Sonic Prime.

I think the prerequisite for this is to find a place in the comic where Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy aren’t too involved in anything and Eggman isn’t doing anything significant. With the Tailstube ep. 3 being the real catalyst of Frontiers. I’m betting on it being between #40-50.

Luckily, Eggman has not been too active in the comics. In fact, he has been reactive to either Starline or Surge. Since Test Run(#37-40), Eggman doesn’t get too involved until #50 or Imposter Syndrome #4. And I guess the Bad Guys mini. Most of it is Starline’s scheming. So we have 10 issues where Eggman could have been on Starfall Island. Most of the time in Bad Guys, Eggman seems to be preoccupied with something else or building something only to be alerted when Starline and company draw his attention. So it’s plausible that Eggman attempted scheme during the ruckus Starline was causing until Starline eventually attacked him.

Sonic, Tails, and Amy are a bit trickier. After Zeti Hunt, Sonic and Tails went on a mini break with Belle hanging around in Tails Workshop after Trial By Fire. So we are talking 3 issues. Not even 3 issues really because Sonic and Tails go and investigate what’s going on with Eggman in #49. Amy is free after Trial by Fire to join Sonic and Tails.

So issue #48 seems to be the only plausible time where Sonic Frontiers happened as all necessary parties aren’t doing anything that would take them out of play for a couple of weeks at most. Why not at any other time? Eggman was either inactive for all of the Neo-Metal Sonic arc or very much too involved in the Metal Virus arc. Sonic unsurprisingly has only taken two breaks in this comic: after the battle for Angel Island with Neo and after Zeti Hunt. And Sonic Frontiers taking place before Angel Island battle contradicts with the fact that Knuckles was not on the island until after said battle and Eggman clearly wasn’t on Starfall Islands when spreading the Metal virus. So issues #1-32 are out. Sonic and Tails are too busy to do anything in Starfall Islands as they are helping finding repairs for Omega and Emerl and are actively hunting the Zeti.

Why 48 given what happened in Sonic Frontiers? It explains how Starline got the jump on Eggman for one or anyone. While yes, Starline made mistakes of revealing himself to his enemies and putting himself on notice, Sonic wasn’t too involved in hunting him down. Neither was Eggman. And he had an ample amount of time in creating Surge and Kit. The thing about Starline is that for all of his bluster about planning and his meticulous posturing, he really did not investigate his enemies too much. Also why Tails not being home during Imposter Syndrome when Starline tried to break into it kind of makes sense. And also, I can see how Eggman was so woefully unprepared if Sonic Frontiers just happened. He lost a “daughter” after a couple week term in a cyber prison. He comes back and tries to collect his bearings and bam, a weird Tenrec and Fox are attacking his base of operations and suddenly Starline took over one of his mechs and is waiting outside his throne room.

Why didn’t Eggman implement Sage yet? He didn’t have a reason until Starline, using Eggman’s own network, hijacked his entire amada. Starline even stole an entire base without Eggman noticing. I can see that after the Overpowered arc, he needs another set of eyes on his network.

Then there is the final characterization of Tails in Sonic Frontiers which I admit contradicts with IDW. But I’d point to how he handles Kit and how he seems to be more independent from Sonic instead of his sidekick. Yes, I get that Sonic and Tails had the same conversation all the way back in issue 3 that they had in Frontiers but I’d say that one in Frontiers is more in-depth. Tails, after essentially defeating the Zeti and saving Sonic’s hide, seems to be operating independently of Sonic and only seems to be called upon or just hanging out with his brother. Tails is independently working with the Restoration on his own accord and between Sonic and Tails, Miles is the only one who has a day job, homes, and a few workshops. The resolution of what Tails will become is best handled in a game and not a comic but we can see the effort of him growing up and becoming hero we all knew he was kind of takes place during Imposter Syndrome. He faces the personification of what he fears he has become to Sonic in Kit and the Fox isn’t shaken at all. He is making a turn into whatever the goal is for Tails and think the argument that Sonic Frontiers took place during 48 supports it.

Then why haven’t they mentioned it yet? Not every adventure that Sonic and company goes on is so remarkable that it constantly needs to be brought up unless it’s related to whatever it’s happening. The reason why Sonic Frontiers isn’t mentioned is because it’s really a contained situation that happens on 4(yes 4, Chaos Island is attached to Ouranos) islands between 5 characters. It wasn’t a world breaking global news awareness kind of thing like SA1 or SA2 because I don’t think Sonic is throwing out press releases of every time they stopped Eggman. In fact, you can argue that is what Tailstube is. It’s Tails telling his world about Sonic and their adventures and his friends while answering questions like it’s the Just Chatting section on Twitch. Unless someone noticed Starfall Islands which they shouldn’t have since it’s four secluded islands, then yeah, no one cares. And the same can be said as to why Sonic not Eggman mention Metal Virus in Sonic Frontiers. It’s not related to what’s happening in the game so why remark upon it. Is Metal Virus arc so out of left field that it needs to be referenced compared to what happened in Sonic CD or Generations or the Advance Series? Or Sonic Rush Adventure? Those games weren’t referenced in Frontiers either but we don’t assume they didn’t happen either since Amy came from CD, Cream was mentioned in Frontiers and she debuted in the Advance Series, and Generations clearly happened as some of the Cyberstages are based off them.

But I digress. If Sonic Frontiers is to fit within IDW somewhere, I’d put it near #48 ish.

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 9

back at it again, and its time for the shadowplay arc, HELL yeah

oh I'm so excited i love this arc lets DO this

oooh its nightbeat and quark!! way before they become relevant, which is so cool

‘one of those recepticon fanatics’ lmao imagine if they were...the recepticons. just doesn't have the same ring to it 

god i fucking love all the politics of mtmte. i love how they’re talking about the senate here before we really get to See how bad they were (we heard a bit about it from whirl a few issues ago, and now here)

love how nightbeat is pretty much agreeing with the decepticon ideology here, even if its clear that he isn't Actually a decepticon - it just drives home the fact that, in this story, The Decepticons Were Right About A Lot Of That Stuff (or at least, they had a reason other than ‘destruction’ for rebelling). 

AND THEN THERES RUNG!!!!!!! WITH HIS MODEL OF THE LOST LIGHT....god i fuckgin LOVE the continuity in this story bc the first time reading this ur like oh ok rung is old yea makes sense...but then later all the time travel stuff happens and then its like OHHHHH 

damn poor rung nightbeat can rlly tell he's lonely just by looking at him vbhjdkdfhbjsjkdf geez. also nightbeat that's ur mystery stick bf from the future js!!

quarks extreme POV on all of the stuff is so interesting, and makes so much sense bc of Course he would think that as a non-combatant scientist who, due to his functional value in current society, wouldn't really benefit much from a revolution - in fact, he’d probably lose a lot. and that’s the sort of thing where you’re like, ok well think about everyone else dude, have some perspective - but at the same time, quark did suffer a pretty terrible fate, so his fears weren't entirely unfounded...augh, its so fascinating...im sorry I'm not gonna shut up about space robot politics this Entire time

HOW did nobody notice that dead body before now

ratchet spray-painting the hands he stole from pharma to match his own paintjob is like...kinda gruesome if you think about it hvbhsjkdfbkjdf

i love rewind sooo much oh my god 

he rlly stashed rung’s comatose body in a wheelchair behind the bar hbkjdhfbshjkdf rewind 

rewind and chromedome’s tag-team explanation....ough hhhhh THEM 

wait a sec, rewind, you have medical records in your database? that is, at least according to regular medical laws, very illegal lmao. my favorite long-running theme in mtmte: the fact that hipaa and osha laws on cybertron are either basically nonexistent, or just universally disregarded 

what the actual fuck is up w/cybertronian time units. that shit is wack as hell 

ooh i love how chromedome looks different in the flashback - no shoulder tires! - that's a cool detail

how come prowl just said ‘minute,’ rewind was busting it up w/all the wack ass fantasy time units just a second ago. geez

also goddd i love the scenery of pre-war cybertron, its SUCH a cool setting like, visually and aesthetically and politically

like, i adore details like the sign in the bg that says ‘everyone’s shape serves a purpose.’ really adds to the ‘society on the precipice of civil war currently controlled by an increasingly-desperate faction who are doling out propaganda like crazy in an attempt to maintain their image and control over the populace’ vibe

good ole murder mystery setup. love it!

pre-war prowl is such an interesting character. actually prowl in general is such an interesting character...I kinda wrote him off during my first read of mtmte (and even a little during my second readthru) as just this dude who’s an asshole (espec bc my prev tf experience involved watching tfa as a kid, and this prowl is very different from tfa prowl lol)...but prowl is SUCH a multi-faceted and interesting character, even in the relatively little we see of him in mtmte 

plus it was interesting to learn later that prowl was one of the characters that jro wanted for mtmte and didn't get, and MAN i wish he got prowl bc I would've loved to see what jro would've done w/prowl on the lost light, that would've been amazing. like, just imagine the arc he would have...I have no idea what that arc would BE, but I know it would be awesome. plus I’d be really interested to see how prowl would factor in, relationships-wise, amongst the crew of the lost light. so much potential!

anyways. I'm in a very talky mood tonight it seems. its currently 4 am so that kinda explains it. ok, moving on!

chromedome and prowl bantering....in their own morbid forensic-cop way...

skids bvhjdbsfjasf. speaking what we’re all thinking: is prowl gonna keep showing up in mtmte despite not technically being part of the cast??

swerves drawing of prowl lmaoooo

AND THEN REWIND IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE MTMTE PANELS....fuckgin cracks me up every time god. rewind was rlly about to flip their entire ass table just to demonstrate that prowl is a serial table-flipper...and then he cant even make the table budge and he just stares at his hands like ‘how could you betray me like this’ hvbajkhhsfdhksdf PEAK hilarity

drift hvbshfdjbasdfj his forcibly cheery expression even tho he’s being harassed by rodimus, who is a big whiny toddler w/drift lmao 

rodimus is the type of guy who, upon drift not replying to one of his texts, would post a whole twitter thread being all like ‘these days u cant trust any1 to hav ur back...u think u kno someone and then they just ghost you...(1/14)’

again, rewind, HOW and WHY do you just Have medical reports, oh my god, somebody please call a hipaa agent I’m scared, 

ratchet interrupting the story to give a quick medical PSA....that's Such an on-brand thing for Me to do that I feel like jro is assigning me ratchet kin as I read this

also, hey, its sonic and boom, those two decepticons from delphi! nice little continuity there

AND HERES ORION PAX SUPER COP

can’t believe idw made my dad optimus prime into a cop. smh. shouldn't be that shocked tho, I feel like half the idw characters are cops

orion rlly hit them w/the omae wa mo shinderu arrest strat

orion: I cant believe you're beating this guy up. anyways, now I'm gonna beat YOU up,

when ratchet puts his hand over drifts mouth and then gets spray paint on drifts face bhjdfsvsdjhfgbjdskf

pre-war ratchet and drift ;_; ratchet’s little inspirational speech...the fact that he tells drift that he’s special...the fact that drift remembered all of this even after 4 million+ yrs...it gets me bro it GETS me

ALSO the layers in the fact that drift then goes on to become a well-known murderous decepticon...so this little scene of him and ratchet in the past gives a lot of context to ratchet’s general attitude towards drift - ratchet clearly feels at least somewhat responsible for all the blood on drift’s hands, since he saved drift’s life way back in the day

the whole relinquishment clinic thing is such cool worldbuilding, bc of course that's the kind of thing that would develop in a society of robot aliens who are only allowed to work within the rigid confines of their alt mode 

I love the whole matrix thing bc its kinda like being the pope or st but also you have a ton of political sway, so its a super important position, so of Course the corrupt senate would want full control over that power, and would assassinate the current prime to try to get their own guy in 

god vhbhjsdkbgshjdf rodimus is such a dick lmao poor drift

HHHHH I love that the cybertronian version of an autopsy is taking the dudes body apart into the smallest components and laying them all out. that's so fucking cool

hmmmm chromedome maybe you should Not be interested in mnemology, how about that,

oh god. time to start being sad about op and senator shockwave. oh god

senator shockwave more like senator sexy 

also the first time I read this I thought I had just missed his name and like halfway thru the story I went back and scoured the pages looking for it hbvhsjdfbshgfdsbj then I was like oh ok so we’re maybe supposed to just know who this guy is from another comic? but NOPE it was very deliberate and I only realized very close to the end that they were setting up some sort of reveal

its funny bc normally I'm not a huge fan of stories where politics play a huge role but I fuckgin love it here, the politics and worldbuilding is all so interesting and also balanced out with a healthy dose of cool sci-fi hijinks, so

lmao there's chromedome being obsessed w/people making the ‘pfft’ sound 

also wow yet more hindsight, maybe you Shouldn’t be so interested in the Institute, chromedome, 

OHHHH shit I forgot abt the red alert stuff happening at the same time as this :( :( :( 

AUGHHH what a fucked up situation. god 

oooof i gotta continue now!! what a solid issue, I love the shadowplay arc

[livalitul]

Thoughts on Sonic’s 30th Anniversary + The State of the Blue Blur

Since Tumblr is, more or less, a place to scream into the void I figure I might as well talk about my overall thoughts on the stream/the overall anniversary thus far. And some other stuff related to Sonic because why not. 

I think the nicest thing I can say about it is that my thoughts are about as mixed as kool-aid. On the one hand, I am genuinely glad that SEGA finally learned after 30 years that rushing a product/products to meet an arbitrary deadline was a stupid idea. Took them long enough. But yeah, I’d much rather wait for a game to come out and be finished, than get the mess that was ‘06 again. 

But on the other hand, we literally got nothing for this year, save for a remake of Sonic Colors, the symphony show, and a spin-off celebration IDW Sonic comic. Which are all good! But then you realize that we haven’t gotten a mainline Modern Sonic game since Forces (which was mediocre at best and a dumpster fire at worst, despite how safe they played it) and that game came out... *checks notes* ...four years ago. And with how little we’ve seen of it (a teaser trailer) coupled with the fact that it’s coming out next year, I’m more than a little concerned. 

With that said, we still have Sonic Prime on the horizon and the sequel to the movie, both of which are probably going to be good, so even if the game does end up being bad, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if they just doubled down into focusing their efforts on non-video game media for Sonic. They quit the console market, so it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that happened. Sonic’s cartoons/anime have always been beloved.

And if that does happen, a part of me would be sad, but at this point I think I’d welcome it. I know people love Sonic Colors a lot, but Colors marks the end of a good portion of the things I liked about Sonic. The lore, seeing all the characters do things and develop, having actually dark/serious stories. The fanbase has always been split and SEGA, contrary to popular belief, has been pretty accepting of fans’ thoughts and ideas. We got 3 games with characters having a gun. Sonic’s “stupid friends” got taken out. More focus was put on 2D segments. Classic Sonic has his own universe separate from Modern. The plots aren’t as serious.

But here’s the thing; the games still don’t get well-received by a lot of people. Colors and Generations, sure, but that’s two games. The modern era is long and I think most people can pick out at least 2 games from the time period of up to Unleashed and after Sonic Adventure 1 that they liked. And Forces sold well, sure, but a lot of that can easily be chalked up to the character creator. Sonic fans love making their own OCs, so a game that let them do that was bound to entice players. And that trailer was lit, don’t even lie to yourselves.

Worse yet, you have people who are replaying the older modern games and realizing that they aren’t bad. Plenty of people have an appreciation for Unleashed now. And it’s been my favorite Sonic game for a while. So the fanbase, which seems  even more divided than ever. And maybe I’ll touch more in depth with this idea at a later date, but I feel like I’m just ranting at this point, so I’ll try to wrap it up.

What I’m essentially trying to say is that while I still am, and likely will always be, a Sonic fan, a lot of the things that I’ve come to love about the games simply aren’t there any more. Plenty of people want Classic Sonic to be the dominant style of games, but I never liked those games. I played through the collection as a kid and none of them came even close to resonating with me like Sonic Adventure 1 did. Or SA2: Battle. Or Sonic Heroes. And a lot of fans who think they know what they’re talking about, really don’t. Or they don’t realize what they’re asking for. People always say Sonic Team needs new blood, but pretty much the whole team is new! The issue is that a lot of people who are good at making Sonic feel like Sonic simply don’t work at the company any more. And those that made games like Colors and Generations, don’t truly understand it as well as they should. And even SEGA can’t keep their stuff straight. Seriously, the stuff I learned from Ian Flynn’s interviews has been enlightening. 

I think SEGA made the right call splitting up the universes to keep at least two sections of the fanbase happy. But while I am still glad that Modern Sonic gets to exist despite how split opinions are on the modern games, ultimately they don’t really grab me like they used to. And I am starting to worry if they ever will.