#Sally Acorn Smackdown

[sallyacornsmackdown]

THE FINALS

Information on these Sallys: Sally Acorn from the Post-SGW (post-reboot) version of the Archie Sonic Comics. In issue #252, the series was rebooted, giving the SatAM cast redesigns to match more closely to the modern design tropes of Sonic characters. Sally's design loses the cheek-fluff, making her look a little more like the Pink Sally prototype, and she also gains cool electric blades as weapons. Oh yeah, and she said bisexual rights, as before the series was cancelled, the Spark of Life arc was the beginning of a potential romance between Sally and Nicole the Holo-Lynx Regular Sally is what I'm calling the version of Sally that we mostly see in the Pre-SGW comics. She spent a lot of the early run looking like this, until Sonic got tossed into space and she grew her hair long for a while and was purposely kept away from being a Freedom Fighter (boo!). Soon after writer Ian Flynn came on board, Sally asked Bunnie to cut off her long-hair and she returned to looking like this to symbolise that she's part of the team once again

[sonicuniversesmackdown]

Round 2

These champions are from @sonicchampionship and @sallyacornsmackdown

[sonicgirlsmackdown]

Sonic Girl Smackdown Official Bracket!

102 will enter, but only 1 can leave!

Matchups below the cut, and round one will begin sometime soon!

Breezie the Hedgehog & Relic the Pika

Nicole the Holo-Lynx & Lupe the Wolf

Dulcy the Dragon & Thunderbolt the Chinchilla

Bunnie Rabbot & Matilda the Armadillo

Clove the Pronghorn & Nephthys the Vulture

Sally Acorn & Conquering Storm the Lynx

Fiona Fox & Julie-su

Mina Mongoose & Gold the Tenrec

Cassia the Pronghorn & Echo the Dolphin

Pearly the Manta Ray & Abyss the Squid

Sonar the Fennec & Coral the Betta

Opal the Jellyfish & Bernadette Hedgehog

Rosy the Rascal & Merna the Merhog

Jian the Tiger & Bunker the Tortoise

Cinder the Pheasant & Carrotia the Rabbit

Princess Undina & Rosie the Woodchuck

Hope Kintobor & The Iron Queen

Metal Amy & Phage

Blade the Shark & Nic the Weasel

Lara-su & [winner of Blade v. Nic]

Whisper the Wolf & Lumina

Blaze the Cat & Tikal the Echidna

The End & Shahra

Tekno the Canary & Squad Commander Red

Tiara Boobowski & [winner of Helen v. Black Rose]

Amy Rose & Vanilla the Rabbit

Avatar & Scarlet Garcia

Rebel Rouge & Thorn Rose

Momma Robotnik & Lady Goat

Lah & Rachel

Surge the Tenrec & Topaz

Queen Aleena & Rusty Rose

Witchcart & Maddie Wachowski

Sticks the Badger & Sage the AI

Cream the Rabbit & Wave the Swallow

Lindsey Thorndyke & Zeena the Zeti

Molly & Sonia the Hedgehog

Honey the Cat & Belle the Tinkerer

Princess Elise the Third & Knuckles the Echidna

Frances & Jewel the Beetle

Sara/Seira & Nimue

Merlina & Tangle the Lemur

Shade the Echidna & Lanolin the Sheep

Prim Rouge & Maria Robotnik

Perci the Bandicoot & Sir Percival

Helen & Black Rose

Marine the Raccoon & Rouge the Bat

Cosmo the Seedrian & Amy Doll

Claire Voyance & Ella

Zooey the Fox & Jojo

Ebony & Batten Rouge

Lady Walrus & Mrs. Vandersnout

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 64-65: TwoMulti-part finale (part 3: Sonic #50 Director’s Cut)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! 

In my last two posts I looked at the Endgame arc, which had its big climax in issue #50 with the final battle between Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Robotnik. However the final version of this issue had been cut down from the creative team’s original vision for a 48 page comic, so lots of stuff was left on the cutting room floor. And so the following year, since the folks at Archie were already releasing the 48 page Sonic Super Specials four times a year, why not use one of those to show off the uncut version of Sonic #50 that they’d wanted to release? Since I already covered the story in my previous post, I’m mostly just going to be exploring the differences here between the original version and the director’s cut. So let’s take a look at what we got, shall we?

Alright, the first big difference we need to address is the cover. What the hell happened here? The original cover for issue #50 was perfect, so why did they feel the need to change it? In particular, why did they need to change it to this?! Young Charles and Jules being featured so prominently on this cover doesn’t feel necessary to me, as they were only in the story as part of a flashback/memory dream sequence. And my God, what is wrong with Robotnik’s face? He looks like he’s straining really, really hard to get out a crap that he’s been holding in for a week. Sorry Mr. Spaziante, but this is pure nightmare fuel.

The next big difference is the splash page, which was a feature of each issue of Endgame that I didn’t really cover. The original issue #50 splash page had a really cool gathering of many of the different freedom fighter groups from the history of ArchieSonic putting the smackdown on the bad guys, all drawn by Art Mawhinney.

Look at this! You’ve got the Freedom Fighters, the Chaotix, the Downunda Freedom Fighters, the Wolfpack, and even Sally’s Substitute Legion are there. Sally herself is not though, because she was still busy pretending to be dead. :P I’ve always enjoyed the Combot’s laser bouncing off various reflective surfaces - including the crystallised King Acorn, that was a nice touch - to ultimately set Antoine’s hair on fire. I kinda feel like he had that coming after accusing Sonic of treason. Twice. 

The splash page in the director’s cut is a bit simpler, just using the cover art from the original issue #50 and introducing the reasoning behind the director’s cut.

For some reason it gives me vibes of George Lucas, talking about the special editions of the Star Wars trilogy. In fact now that I think about it, those movies were re-released the same year as this. This is pure speculation from me, but it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that the Star Wars special editions were what inspired the Sonic #50 director’s cut.

Okay, moving into the actual story now. A number of panels throughout the story had their dialogue slightly tweaked in the special edition, and the first instance of this is on the very first page.

In the original edition of the story, the Overlander hunting Robotnik called him, “Julian, son of Ivo,” rather than “Julian of the house of Ivo.” I guess the writers wanted to clarify that Ivo was a clan name rather than the given name of Daddy Kintobor. 😛

We then got a few pages of new content at the end of Robotnik’s memory dream, when his Swatbots woke him up to inform him that they had captured a test subject for his doomsday weapon. And not just any test subject - an Overlander!

This person even recognised Robotnik from the old days when he was known as Julian Kintobor - apparently his own people were completely unaware of his transition from fugitive scientist to global dictator. Robotnik gleefully fired the ultimate annihilator prototype at his captive, wiping him from existence.

But little did he know that Snively was monitoring him and vowing to have the last laugh.

Our next change came in the form of more additional dialogue when Drago caught Tails and Rotor trying to escape.

This one was easier to spot because the lettering looked a bit different than the rest of the page. This line where Drago threatened to deport Tails and Rotor to a prison settlement in Downunda (I thought it was only the British who did that :P) leads directly into the next few pages of new content showing Bunnie and Antoine’s escape, so it makes sense that it wasn’t in the original edition. No Downunda scene means no need for a reference to Downunda.

So yeah, next we got to see Bunnie and Antoine escaping from their prison cell, freeing the rest of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, and stowing away on the ore transport ship while Walt and his crew kept Crocbot and his army busy.

In a void this additional content would have been pretty cool, as Bunnie and Antoine had been dropped into the original version of issue #50 after they’d already arrived back in Robotropolis. But the thing was that if you were reading all the ArchieSonic comics in release order - like I was when I was picking these up back in 1997 - then we’d already seen this, and in more detail. Sonic Super Special #4 had featured a backup story called “Down and Out in Downunda,” which had involved Bunnie and Antoine sitting around a campfire, telling their friends about how they’d escaped the prison camp and gotten back for the big finale.

That special had been able to dedicate thirteen pages to Bunnie and Antoine’s campfire story, whereas in the issue #50 director’s cut we only got two pages showing their escape and one page showing what they got up to during their shuttle ride home. So by comparison the director’s cut ironically felt more rushed than the original version of this part of the story we had already seen.

Next we got some more additional dialogue in the scene where Sonic and the others are freeing the prisoners in Knothole.

Once again, this still doesn’t make it clear how Sonic knew that Drago was working with the Swatbots, and the best explanation I can come up with is that Sonic saw him from the air when he was parachuting down into Knothole. 

The next update took the story back to Bunnie and Antoine aboard the transport ship, coming across Robotnik’s vlog discussing the Ultimate Annihilator and how his victory was assured.

Antoine and Bunnie agreed they needed to sabotage this weapon and targeted the transport’s Combot commander, who was carrying a bomb on him. Why did the commander have a bomb? Well if you’d read the Bunnie and Antoine story I mentioned from Super Special #4, you’d know that it was given to him by Crocbot, who had ordered him to blow up Robotnik and his Ultimate Annihilator so that Crocbot could take over Mobius instead.

But unfortunately they didn’t really have enough space to explain that here in the director’s cut. Like I said before, it feels cramped compared to the original version of this part of the story we had seen. One difference is that while the original story had an alarming zoom in on Robotnik’s evil smile during the vlog, the director’s cut dialed that up to 11.

So there’s that.

Our next update is two pages concentrating on Drago, while running away from Sonic, being confronted by Hershey.

Despite him currently running for his life he’s dumb enough to fall for her seductive act, at which point she flat out attempts to murder him! Honestly, I’m all for this. Drago is an absolute sleazebag and he definitely had this coming.

But if you thought it was ridiculous in the original cut of #50 that Drago could outrun Sonic, in this version he had enough time to get seduced, then beaten up, then narrowly avoid having his skull crushed with a boulder, then get up and try to run away again, at which point we returned to the part of the original version of the story where he was knocked unconscious with another rock to the back of his head. 

Next there were a couple of dialogue additions, again noticeable because the lettering was slightly different. 

Yeah, I'm still not entirely sure what's going on in that left panel.

After defeating Snively in the original version of the story, Sonic ran into Bunnie and Antoine - literally - and Sonic told them he was going to confront Robotnik to settle the score. In this version of the story that mostly also happened (Sonic said he was going to buy Antoine and Bunnie time rather than just wanting to punch Robotnik in the nose), but the original Sam Maxwell art was replaced with new art by someone else.

I can’t tell who though, because while the original version of the story had a handy credits box at the end of the issue showing who wrote and drew each page, the director’s cut doesn’t have that for some reason. The best we got is a list of the contributors on the splash page, but unfortunately it doesn’t specifically credit each page’s artist.

What we got instead is a couple of additional pages by this artist showing Antoine and Bunnie getting to the cannon just as it was preparing to fire, as well as Sonic reaching Robotnik just as he was about to activate the weapon but being too busy fighting Swatbots to stop him.

I think that this part is one of the better additions to the director’s cut - we actually get to see Knothole getting blasted by the Ultimate Annihilator rather than just Robotnik pushing a button and gloating about it. We also got to see Antoine and Bunnie planting the bomb and making a run for it before we moved into the big showdown between Sonic and Robotnik.

By the way, this bomb did absolutely nothing. Well, at least they tried.

This fight ended with an extra page from Patrick Spaziante, uncoloured, showing Sonic at Robotnik’s throat as they both faded out of reality. And this was followed by an additional page that was completely blank to to really emphasise how they’d both been wiped out before Sonic shwooped back into existence.

The final change we got to see in the director’s cut was after Sonic had found out that Sally was still alive and had gone to see her. Sally awakening from Sonic pecking her on the cheek was now followed up with a full page smooch. Aww!

My apologies to any outraged SonAmy fans. xD

Before I get into my analysis of the issue as a whole, I wanted to talk about the Ultimate Annihilator a bit. We didn’t really get to see it in action at all in the original version of Sonic #50, so I decided to save this until I got to the director’s cut. And frankly… I don’t understand how this thing works at all. As portrayed in the director’s cut, the Ultimate Annihilator is a massive cannon that fires a laser upwards to an orbiting satellite, which then redirects that laser back down onto the intended target. Okay, fine so far, that fits the bill for a typical supervillain’s doomsday weapon. But how does that fit with Dr. Quack’s description of how Snively sabotaged it? 

So let me see if I have this right - you have to specify who you want to vaporise before you fire this thing at them? That’s a James Bond villain plan right there. And I mean that very literally - the most recent movie, No Time to Die, featured a weapon that was harmless to everyone except those whose DNA was targeted. Huh. Who would have thought that Sonic the Hedgehog would predict the plot of a James Bond movie 25 years in the future? That said, while you could potentially argue that it’s an effective weapon for targeted assassination, it seems a little overly complicated for a tyrannical dictator whose goal is genocide. I just can’t see Robotnik arming this weapon and saying, “Okay Ultimate Annihilator, I’m going to fire you at Knothole now, but make sure you only vaporise the people I’ve specified, okay? No one else!” For that matter, how does the targeting even work for this thing? Does it work on DNA samples, like in No Time to Die? After Robotnik invaded Knothole, did he go, “All right, all of you line up single file! I need to get DNA samples from each of you. …for totally non-evil reasons, I assure you”? If not DNA, then does it work based on individual species? I assume not, because then Snively would have targeted himself as well as Robotnik. Maybe you have to manually enter in the name of every target you want to wipe out? “Snively, get me the Knothole phone directory! Okay let’s see here… Alison the Aardvark… Andrew the Antelope… Antoine D’Coollette… Betty Butterfly- my GOD this is tedious. Snively, why did I design my doomsday weapon like this?!” Did he have to do this same input method for the Overlander he tested the prototype on? We didn’t see him do any kind of preparations like that, unless his Swatbots did it for him while he was still asleep.

One last thing - why did Snively spare Knothole? The only reason it ended up in a pocket dimension was because it wasn’t a target the Ultimate Annihilator was programmed to wipe out, due to Snively’s sabotage. But Robotnik had presumably already programmed whatever it took to target everyone in Knothole. Why not just add Robotnik’s name to the list of targets? I’d presume it would be additional work to remove everyone else that had already been entered, and they were all Snively’s enemies just as much as Robotnik’s. In fact, if Snively had let Knothole be destroyed then he wouldn’t have gotten captured just a few months later when the Freedom Fighters came to reclaim Robotropolis in the Brave New World super special.

And when he did get captured, you’d have thought he would have brought up the fact that he’d spared their miserable lives, either to try and bargain with them or at least gloat about how he was the only reason they were still alive. Maybe by that stage even Penders realised how dumb it was for Snively to have not let Knothole get wiped out and thought it would be best to not bring it up again. Unfortunately for him, Sonic fans have long memories. 😛

So is the director’s cut of this story better than the original? Well yes, although that Robotnik on the cover will haunt me for the rest of my days. Apart from the three pages of Bunnie and Antoine escaping and getting back to Robotropolis, which I feel doesn’t live up to the more fleshed out version of that story that was told in Super Special #4, almost everything else that was added was an improvement to the original story. The whole thing with Robotnik getting to capture a member of his own species was pretty interesting, and the additional pages we got of the final Sonic vs Robotnik fight were pretty awesome. That doesn’t mean that the story isn’t still full of plotholes, of course - far from it. It’s a very flawed story that makes no sense at all at times, but it’s far from the worst thing that ever appeared in ArchieSonic. If you put the original version of issue #50 side by side with the director’s cut and told me to read one, I’d pick the director’s cut every time. 

Okay, I think I’m finally done talking about Endgame now, which is a bit of a relief after dedicating three blog posts to it. Next time I’ll be looking at Knuckles the Echidna issues #30 - 32, which ended up being the finale for that spinoff when the series was cancelled. RIP.

[ramblingsonic]

So, a lot happened.

To summarize the fight: Mammoth Mogul (who had 1 chaos emerald's power) absorbed Enerjak's power; 12 emeralds in total. He then banished Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails, who managed to come back and assume super forms with the help of Athair and the Ancient Walkers; with this, we see Turbo Tails and have his status as the chosen one reaffirmed.

They laid the smackdown on Mogul, who then attempted to take the 2 emeralds powering the island, only for Locke to interfere and cause an explosion, depowering but not harming our heroes, and turning Mammoth Mogul and the 2 emeralds into a massive chaos emerald, equivalent to 14 emeralds total.

Thus, Mammoth Mogul was defeated, and his life force sealed inside what is effectively The Master Emerald, which now keeps the floating island flying high.

In Mogul's defeat, the sword of acorn has been passed off to Sally. With the explosion, Archy and Knux believe there was outside interference; Archy almost certainly knows this to be true, so the fact he'd share his "suspicions" with Knux shows he's giving Knuckles some more information, kinda.

I'll admit, I thought Mogul was gonna be a bigger deal. He showed up, and in a short time frame caused a lot of spectacle, but he didn't really stick around. I knew about the scene with Turbo Tails and the defeat of Mogul, but I figured that'd be later in the comic, with more buildup- probably the ending of this entire section of the comic. I thought Mogul was gonna be a big bad, acting as the main threat for an entire arc. I'm happy his story isn't over, and I'm excited to see if SA1 fucks with this plot beat at all later lol, but still, I expected a bit more out of him in the short term.

The legion has been crippled, with Enerjak powerless and Kragok captured. How that threat will carry on shall be intriguing. As for Locke and the rest of the family, they're showing themselves more and more; eventually, they'll be fully revealed it seems.

The fact that Knux is the first in the lineage of guardians to assume a super form is very fun. He is the most special boy after all, as the comic has said.

I expected more to emerge out of all this admittedly, but I am excited to see what else will come this in this section of the comic's history.

Finally, lets just address this cute little scene. The relationship between these two is important, and from the sounds of it, it'll be getting more emphasis moving forward. I'm excited for that- and excited to know that Tails' story of being the Chosen One isn't over.

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round Four - Left Side

Information on these Sallys: These plushies were all merch that was available from SEGA World Sydney and came in threee different sizes. Sidenote - if anyone has one of these for sale (or any Sally merch, really), let me know :3 Sally Acorn from the Post-SGW (post-reboot) version of the Archie Sonic Comics. In issue #252, the series was rebooted, giving the SatAM cast redesigns to match more closely to the modern design tropes of Sonic characters. Sally's design loses the cheek-fluff, making her look a little more like the Pink Sally prototype, and she also gains cool electric blades as weapons. Oh yeah, and she said bisexual rights, as before the series was cancelled, the Spark of Life arc was the beginning of a potential romance between Sally and Nicole the Holo-Lynx

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round Two - Left Side

Information about these Sallys: Possibly the most glorious of the Sally merch from the 90s. The one on the left is a bottle, but you could use it as a bong if you were really determined. And it is almost 4/20 ...But the one on the right is our lord and saviour the cursed snowglobe, in the middle of a ritual dance to sacrifice Robotnik to the rancid water inside. The snowglobe may be angered if it loses

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave One

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave One

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave One

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round Three - Left Side

Information about these Sallys: Although not one of the main Freedom Fighters, Sally did have a few small appearances in the early days of the UK's Sonic the Comic. Fleetway Sally is probably best known for her appearance as a newsreader. Like most of the UK appearances of Sally, she was based on Ricky the Squirrel. In these comics, Sally also has a younger brother called Tufftee, by contrast to the Archie comics, where she has an older brother called Elias

One of the prototype designs for Sally. I've labelled it Hedgehog-like Prototype Sally purely because that is what she looks like. My speculation is that she looks to be somewhere between the Pink Sally from the SatAM pilot episode and a hedgehog

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round Three - Left Side

Information about these Sallys: SatAM Sally from the second season of the show sports the blue vest. Arguably, season two is where more of the plot-heavy episodes that fans remember occurred, including the finale in which Sally was an equal part in helping Sonic defeat Robotnik once and for all Bottle Sally is possibly the most glorious of the Sally merch from the 90s. It is a bottle, but you could use it as a bong if you were really determined. And it is almost 4/20

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave Four

Information about these Sallys: Outside of SEGA World Sydney there was a statue of Sonic & Sally. For a long time the statue was thought to be forgotten and long gone after the park closed in 2000. But in 2018 it was tracked down to a junkyard, where... well, there really wasn't much left of poor Sally. In 2022 it was reported that the statue has since been sold to an unknown buyer, so its whereabouts are no longer known. But it would be nice to believe that perhaps one day it could be restored to its former glory So the question here is, do you prefer the Sally statue dead or alive?

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave Four

Information about these Sallys: Sally McAcorn is another AU version of Sally that Sonic met while hopping between dimensions. She is a lawyer and a parody of a character from an American show called Ally McBeal. It's a shame this didn't happen later on, because a Phoenix Wright version of Sally would've been much funnier Cursed Snowglobe is yet another piece of merch I stumbled across while looking for stuff to include in this bracket. I was immediately hypnotised by it, as we watch our heroes perform a ritual dance to sacrifice Robotnik into the dirty water. This thing fills me with fear. It is glorious. I think it could win the whole tournament

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave Three

Information about these Sallys: Princess Acorn is one of the most well-known of the prototype Sallys. It seemed they were quite close to committing to this version of her design, as several images featuring a very different version of SatAM and showing Princess Acorn were featured in the UK's Sonic the Poster Mag, as well as a few other drawing of her that have been found over the years. Little is known about this version of SatAM, but it looked to include very different versions of characters from both SatAM and Fleetway's Sonic the Comic Super Sally(???) is... probably not actually that, but I saw this image amongst the concept art of Sally and it looked so much like they'd given her a super form that it blew my mind and I had to include this. My guess would be that this is an idea for Sally being powered up by the Deep Power Stones, which was something that did happen in the final episode of SatAM, but this design wasn't used. If anyone knows more about this (or if I've just blanked and this did appear in SatAM somewwhere), please let me know

[sallyacornsmackdown]

Round One - Wave Three

Information on these Sallys: Both of these are Sally from the Pre-SGW (pre-reboot) Era of the Archie Sonic Comics. Long-haired Sally is from a period of time when the comics were more heavily focused on relationship drama and many of the comic girls were drawn with more anthro proportions. This version of Sally spent a lot of time being shut away from the rest of the cast and crying over romance drama. Poor Sally :( Regular Sally is what I'm calling thr version of Sally that we mostly see in the Pre-SGW comics. She spent a lot of the early run looking like this, until Sonic got tossed into space. Soon after writer Ian Flynn came on board, Sally asked Bunnie to cut off her long-hair and she returned to looking like this to symbolise that she's part of the team once again. And yes, I am letting my bias show in these descriptions :>