#archie mega man online

[doamarierose-honoka]

Archie Mega Man Online is cooking up something extraordinary for all ye #MegaMan faithful out there! Enjoy this panel in progress by AMMO artist and editor @/june_shores

[bassforte]

MEGA MAN FANS. Ok so I’m curious so we’re gonna make a poll.

Tried to be broad about it. Please lemme know in the tags how you got introduced. I’m wondering if my introduction is universal 👀.

[fictionkinfessions]

https://www.tumblr.com/fictionkinfessions/758797776929931264/does-anyone-else-ever-get-the-au-memory-mish-mash?source=share

yeah! im a mega man kin, and I have to describe my specific media as "general" because I have stuff from so much. im from the games, and a little bit of the archie comics, and smash, and mvc, and rockman online (which was outright canceled ..), and it's just 😵‍💫 im mega man in general

x

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

BRACKET REVEAL

Alright. At long last, I present to you the bracket...or should I say...*BRACKETS* for the Virtual Character Tournament!

Given the scale, the first round is going to be one bracket per week, 4 a day, with each lasting 24 hours. I know that this is still tight, but given how many contestants there are, along with the necessary inclusions of images and propaganda (oh and I guess also my job), it's what I can do to keep this semi-manageable. There's also no redemption round this time. It's gonna be a single elimination tournament. Be kind to your peers. This is not but a drop in the infinite ocean of the internet.

...oh yeah the brackets themselves. We'll be going in order over the course of 4 weeks. I'll make proper announcements for them as they commence. Given how many there are and what I want to get done beforehand, Bracket 1 will likely begin some time this week. But for the matchups...

Bracket 1:

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs. Elohim (The Talos Principle)

Flame (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs. The Supervisor/Mouthless (Tenkuu Shinpan)

XANA (Code Lyoko) vs. MetalMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network)

9-Jack-9 (Zot!) vs Poppy Pipopapo (Kamen Rider Ex Aid)

Sage (Sonic Frontiers) vs Mektryllis (Fate/Extra CCC)

Dot Matrix (Reboot) vs V Flower (Vocaloid)

Wizardmon (Digimon) vs Delta (Red Vs. Blue)

Sora (Ever17) vs Kasane Teto (UTAU)

The Doctor/EMH (Star Trek Voyager) vs Crash (Awful Hospital)

Burroughs (Shin Megami Tensei IV) vs Quorra (Tron Legacy)

The Machine (Person of Interest) vs The Rocket Dex (Pokemon)

P03 (Inscription) vs. M.X.E.S (FNAF Security Breach: Ruins)

Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/EXTRA) vs Data Riku (Kingdom Hearts)

Samaritan (Person of Interest) vs ART (The Murderbot Diaries)

Cortana (Halo) vs M-Bot (Skyward)

Mitsuko Miyazumi (Archer) vs Ritsu (Assassination Classroom)

Bracket B:

Ene (Kagerou Project) vs The Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe)

Amadeus (Steins; Gate 0) vs D.O.M (The Adventure Zone)

AM (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) vs Theo (Meta Runner)

Colonel.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Daia (Kiratto PriChan)

Agumon (Digimon) vs The Bobbiedots (FNAF Fazbear Frights)

Felix the Desktop Cat (Real Life) vs SHODAN (System Shock)

MegaMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Church (Red vs. Blue)

Shepherd (ENA) vs Dr. Coomer (Half Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware)

Sophie/Sophia (Persona 5 Strikers) vs Dizzy (Beyblade)

Miss J/SCP 5094 (SCP) vs Ultraman X (Ultraman X)

SAYU (No Straight Roads) vs Falulu (Pripara)

Incarceron (Incarceron) vs Benry (Half Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware)

Lea (Crosscode) vs Kiracchu (Kiratto PriChan)

Dragon (Prahumans) vs Murder-Bot 2.0 (The Murderbot Diaries)

Ai (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs Glitch Slime (Slime Rancher)

Eris (Wolf 359) vs Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club)

Bracket III:

Hera (Wolf 359) vs Shin AI (Your Turn to Die)

Alba (Star Twinkle Pretty Cure) vs The Denpa Men (The Denpa Men)

Guy (Free Guy) vs EDI (Mass Effect)

Aetna (Lore Olympus) vs Yui (Sword Art Online)

Nicole the Holo-Lynx (Archie Sonic) vs Gabumon (Digimon)

Jacqueline Box (Pripara) vs Mamechi (Tamagotchi)

Vanellope von Shweetz (Wreck-It Ralph) vs Cleverbot (Real Life)

The Phantom Virus (Scooby-Doo) vs Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa)

Alter Ego (Danganronpa) vs Digit (Cyberchase)

Simulcast (Reflection TTRPG) vs SARA (Toonami)

Lumina Ichihoshi (Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ) vs The World Machine (OneShot)

Rumble McSkirmish (Gravity Falls) vs Holly (Red Dwarf)

HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) vs Samantha (Her)

PAMA (Minecraft Story Mode) vs Noah Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Agent Smith (The Matrix) vs O.R.C.A (Splatoon)

Spunc (Alpha Betas) vs Porygon (Pokemon)

Bracket Delta:

GIFanny (Gravity Falls) vs Coco (Aikatsu Friends)

Vic Fontaine (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) vs Red One (The Last Angel)

Glitchtrap (FNAF Help Wanted) vs Holo (My Holo Love)

Avina (Mass Effect) vs Light Hope (She-Ra)

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Aya (Green Lantern: The Animated Series)

Bonzi Buddy (Real Life) vs Tama (AI The Somnium Files)

Dragon (Worm) vs Bip (Runway to the Stars)

Failsafe (Destiny) vs J.A.R.V.I.S (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Aiba (AI: The Somnium Files) vs CanHaz (DC Comics)

SAYER (SAYER) vs Fey (Welcome to Night Vale)

Buddy (Buddy Simulator 1984) vs Ziggy (Quantum Leap)

Maggy (Hellspark) vs The Squip (Be More Chill)

Lyla (Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse) vs Durandal (Marathon)

Beta Jay 137 (Ninjago) vs Zero III (Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward)

Sergey Ushanka (The Magnus Archines) vs Demetra (Spy Kids 3: GAME OVER)

Alie (The 100) vs Lil' Hal (Homestuck)

As always, thank you for bearing with me during this long and arduous process. Sorry for the hassle, and be prepared, as it is almost upon us.

[robotnikholmescomicblog]

I'll go back onto posting Archie Mega Man stuff on here soon :)

Just gotta get into the right headspace. I've taken a break online for quite a while and haven't been feeling the best, creative-wise, but I promise at some point you'll see my dumb lil comic posts again lol xD

[loopy777]

Yeah, Batman '66 and Smallville Season 11 were good. The latter besides the better writing is that aside from following 10 seasons of a TV show is basically a streamlined Superman and even DCU. That said, besides the shortlives The Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows, the perfect N52 antidote and the factually most underrated 2010s comic? Mega Man by Sonic the Hedgehog writer Ian Flynn (Who did some segments of the MLP/Transformers crossovers).

Now, those I have read! Renew Your Vows was fun, but Mega Man was a real standout. I actually think the first crossover with Sonic might be a functionally perfect comic book; it's no Watchman, granted, but it delivers fun on every page and fulfilled all the potential of the concept. Can't ask for more than that, IMO.

I still need to complete the Mega Man run, though. I started with the trade paperbacks, but of course Archie never fully collected the series, so I've been slowly assembling single issues for the rest, picking them up via a combination of conventions and the online shops I was using to get the Transformers issues I missed. Someday I'll have the whole thing.

[autocat5876]

MY TIME HAS COME.

you can read archie on grabberzone! all the "eras" are split up into their own categories and i'm like 99% sure the mega man crossover is on there (if not then you can find that on readcomiconline)

start with classic era and then follow along with the story. at the end of the issues i think it directs you to sonic universe sometimes or the mega man crossover but if not um. you'll still understand the lore it kinda fills itself in (but you should read it all anyways)

Uurghh.... I should read Archie huh... I should.... But damn.... I don't know if I have the strength to do it ...

I just got caught up with the IDW main story (minus whispangle) so ..

OUGHHH IT WOULD BE SOOOO NICE TO PULL OUT DETAILS FROM ALL THE MEDIA FOR MY AU...

and also knowing what my Archie fan friends are going on about

I should read more of the IDW comics (non main stuff) too

Also do I even bother with the Ken Penders stuff because I don't want him to sue me for plagiarism/j

Ughh Sonic. Being a Sonic fan is so hard .. I don't like reading... (Like I don't hate it, but :(... Why are manga and comics hard to follow...)

[archiesoniconline]

To Shard: Do you consider yourself the Astro Boy or the Mega Man of your universe?

Shard: Oh, I’m way better than both of them! I look way cooler to start with! They don’t have the same snazzy colour scheme I do!

[zosonils]

i think i'm hyperfixating on the archie mega man adaption specifically rather than the series as a whole which FUCKING SUCKS because the comics got PUT ON INDEFINITE HIATUS SIX YEARS AGO AND THEN THE LICENSE MOVED TO SOME OTHER GUYS SO THEY ARE PROBABLY NEVER CONTINUING

[wave-man]

gay rights

[thankskenpenders]

The DiC characters or the adventures of sonic characters are not coming back, ever. 90's nostalgia is super huge right now, tons of companies are doing nostalgia bait and callbacks to especially 90's stuff. If SEGA were to ever use those characters, it would be now. The fact that theyre not, says enough. And they sure as heck wont use them 10 years from now when kids dont even know sonic had those cartoons.

Think about it like this, obscure characters from the Sonic Manga of all things have gotten referenced. That the FF's dont get that or Sonic X characters is for a reason. I'm sure the comic writers would love to do some easter eggs or just goof about the old cartoons, but SEGA must be keepin a tight grip on certain characters not even getting alluded to.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to send this? First of all this isn't even something I've talked about in the last few days. Second... yeah, no shit there are reasons why the DiC characters like the Freedom Fighters or Scratch and Grounder or whoever haven't come back? I've written about all those reasons extensively. The legal drama of the Archie comics, the mixed reputation of the series, the clear desire to differentiate the IDW series from the Archie run, their relative obscurity compared to the Sega cast, the fact that they clash with the modern vision for Sonic without retooling, and of course the fact that Sega has just never really cared about any of them. If getting those characters back was easy then the IDW series would've just been about the Freedom Fighters from the start. I've said repeatedly that folks shouldn't hold their breath

But I also don't think it's completely impossible, even if it's not something I'm counting on. And that's because Sonic is a franchise defined by weird, unexpected decisions. Did anyone expect to get a decades late live action Sonic movie, or for it to be the highest grossing video game movie ever? Did anyone expect Sega to sanction a new classic-style 16-bit Sonic game from a team of indie devs? Or a game where you get to make your own Sonic OC and have them be besties with Sonic? Or a (bad) Sonic RPG from BioWare? Or for them to devote that much screentime to Elise at the big Sonic Symphony? Or for Tangle and Whisper to get their own comic miniseries, a bunch of official merch, and even playable appearances in two mobile games? Or an officially licensed Mephiles the Dark Tech Deck? I could go on and on. Again: I'm not saying it's gonna happen any day now. But weirder things have happened

I also don't think "kids don't know who characters like the Freedom Fighters are" is an argument that holds any water. I mean, yeah, obviously they're not NEARLY as popular as the game cast. But like... older media doesn't just disappear when a new generation of kids rolls around? Especially not when it's attached to a perpetually popular franchise

Like, when I was a kid, I became obsessed with a lot of shit that was from before my time! Classic Mega Man, the G1 Transformers cartoon, EarthBound. And as I've explained before, Sonic too. I got into Sonic in 2002, but it was through catching AoStH on Toon Disney and randomly stumbling upon Archie Sonic #13 at a flea market. It didn't matter that those were outdated pieces of Sonic media because they were still new to me. And I know there are kids out there who are the same way. Months before the movie came out, my little niece and nephew became obsessed with Sonic X (with no involvement from me) because it was on Netflix, and now they love Sonic. It didn't matter to them that that show was nearly 17 years old at the time. While they're definitely in the minority, I'm sure there are kids out there finding SatAM on YouTube (or on Netflix, when it was on there), or finding fanart of Sally online and looking into where she came from. No, they aren't as widely marketable as someone like Shadow, but that doesn't mean NOBODY knows who they are aside from old farts, or that kids who like Sonic turn their noses up at characters they don't already recognize

[doamarierose-honoka]

Art Stream - Archie MegaMan Online Issue 56 Page 3

[crystalelemental]

Caitlin - One Year Later

I’ve decided this is a series now.  I had initially planned it for major players that get their reruns about a year later, but that’s super inconsistent.  We can’t guarantee they’ll get a rerun that easily.  Seasonals can, but not like...Lear or the Anniversary units, you know?

So instead, I’m doing some at random based on their performance for me over the last year.  And who better to start with than the very first unit I pulled for: Caitlin.  Fun fact!  I did actually start while Maxie and Archie were up!  For like.  Two days.  I didn’t have any concept of the game, and only showed up because I was fixating on Caitlin as a character and going through eight hours of continuing education credit via online lectures, which is basically like suicide in slow motion, so I needed a distraction that wouldn’t tear focus from the training.  Turns out, rerolling in gacha is just the fix.  It took like five hours, but I did get Caitlin, and was super focused on using her.  Surprisingly, people were pretty receptive to my decision.  She ranked really low on tier lists, but everyone was like “The game’s pretty easy, you can use whoever,” and so I went with that.  And in the intervening year, how far has she come?

Caitlin’s life has been a rollercoaster over the last year.

Upon my arrival to the game, Psychic was already considered one of the better damage types in the game, thanks to Psychic Terrain.  Only four types had multipliers back then, and Psychic was one of them, so Psychic was, by default, pretty good.  While Psychic-types now are considered a highly over-represented type, at the time, Caitlin was the only 5* Psychic-type striker in the general pool.  Giovanni was her only competition, but the man didn’t even have a grid.  More often, if Caitlin were passed up, it was for Bianca herself, whose move damage in Stored Power was pretty respectable.  But given this, Caitlin was kinda the go-to, because...you really didn’t have other options.  And being slow wasn’t a huge problem, because Sabrina was the go-to supporter, and Pep Rally on Reflect was fantastic gauge control.

Problem is, even the baseline for Caitlin was painful.  Caitlin, a Psychic-type Striker, has no multipliers.  She gets flat damage, with the bonus damage nodes on grid.  Four sync boosting tiles isn’t bad, but to give context, Kahili, a common, has four damage nodes, and an entire Haymaker on her grid.  That’s how out-gunned Caitlin is.  She was carried entirely by Psychic Terrain.  Without it, the damage just isn’t here.  All her boons were in negating status and having interesting healing options alongside defense buffs on trainer move.  All really interesting conceptually, but in the 7.5k Master Mode meta, it was virtually worthless.  The goal was always to explode a stage with raw damage, and Caitlin couldn’t play to this meta, because she was one of a handful of 5* general pool units who hadn’t yet received EX.  All she needed was that blessing, and she’d be a contender in this meta.

Then Giovanni got his grid.  Both move and sync damage multipliers, Crit Strike 3, On a Roll support with Psychic carrying two such boosts, and Endurance.  Suddenly, Giovanni was packing substantially more power on his already higher base special attack, and had defensive counterplay to moves in Endurance.  But he still didn’t have that Striker EX, and if Caitlin could get that, she’d maintain relevance over him.

Then we got Lear, a Psychic-type damage dealer that was so absurdly powerful, he could tear through CS stages off-type with no issue, something Caitlin...really couldn’t do.  She could off-type, but it wasn’t clean.  Now by pure damage, she’s outclassed.  But hey, he’s a Tech, she’s a Striker, still just waiting on that EX.

And then the Villain Arc.  Giovanni didn’t just take EX, he got Mega Evolution.  Now, sure, this was for a time limited unit, so-oh wait, they adjusted it so legendary events are permanent. He wasn’t just far stronger than Caitlin, he was more accessible.  I am not sure what DeNA’s vendetta against Caitlin at this time was about, but after all this, there was no reason to use Caitlin anymore, and not even the hope of an EX carried weight.  Giovanni had taken everything.

And yet, we still weren’t done piling it on.  Next came SS Lusamine, who was a Psychic Striker Master Fair, putting even Giovanni’s damage to shame. With so many dominant Psychic-types in the game, Caitlin was a strong contender for one of the worst units.  She wasn’t inherently bad, but the CS meta only needs five teams, and why would you ever use Caitlin with Bianca when you had Lear, Giovanni, and SS Lusamine?

Meta shifts were a double-edged sword.  Starting with the negative, the most prominent thing in her life, 10k Master Mode dropped.  Suddenly, opponents got even bulkier and harder to take down, while she continued to receive nothing to help her miserable damage.  What was already a rough time became even worse, and despite hopes of her own bulk finally mattering, Giovanni seemed to have no issues adapting to the change.

The positive, if you can call it that, was Legendary Gauntlet.  A big issue in CS meta was opportunity cost.  Why use Caitlin when stronger Psychic types exist?  Gauntlet demanded every tool be used effectively, and multiple damage dealers of the same type was her big break.  As an added bonus, this was the slower-paced meta that really spoke to her defensive strengths.  Being able to take hits reliably, and even heal them off, was huge in a meta like this.  Sadly, damage numbers could also just erase the higher HP bars, and with only one Psychic Terrain setter, Caitlin was usually the dead last pick for that boon.  To make matters worse, +2-3 in both defenses with a 20% chance to heal some HP every attack isn’t exactly exceptional for bulk.  Caitlin just needed too much - crit rate for damage, extra bulk for survival, backup healing in case hers didn’t work out.  The only unit who could facilitate that was Spring Burgh.

Then, the savior: SS Dawn.  Finally, someone who knew exactly what Caitlin needed.  +2 defense, special defense, and crit per trainer move, with All Ramped Up on grid.  In two uses of their trainer moves, Caitlin could now sit on +6 defense, special defense, and special attack, and +3 crit.  This was the bulk she had been craving all this time.  The main issue was that the team is fairly slow.  Bianca, as the obvious terrain setter, had some ability to speed up gauge under Terrain, but it wasn’t quite as much as you’d want.  And Terrain’s opportunity cost remained high.

The big money, though, was the new technical support in Anni May.  Psychic Terrain on another option meant she wasn’t competing with stronger options, but Anni May’s benefits absolutely eclipsed Bianca’s for Caitlin specifically.  Mist Ball debuffs special attack, adding tremendously to Caitlin’s already strong bulk.  And under Psychic Terrain, it costs no gauges.  Now this freed up Caitlin’s moves.  X Sp Atk All wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was a good way to open up energy on SS Dawn’s grid.  Dawn no longer needed All Ramped Up, and could invest in other skills.  Like, say, Catalytic Recovery.  You’d have to give up Danger Damage Guard or Sync Regen, but it opened up Dawn’s support for gauge control, which fixed the last issue Caitlin had.  And thanks to Anni May’s own trainer move, she also capped defenses.  This was a very different approach to Psychic Spam, emphasizing bulk and survival over raw power.

As an added benefit, this was when the 3* Psychic Gear dropped, and Caitlin finally got her EX.  These were small but significant improvements.  Caitlin is a unit who actually uses every stat buffed by the gear due to her bulky offense role.  The EX was also a nice improvement to help her vaporize CS stages.  While lack of multipliers still hurts, it’s enough to clear the sides under Terrain, and that’s all it ever needed to do.  She went from mostly relevant in Gauntlet, to being able to contribute in CS, and with the insane bulk from her allies, Caitlin even went so far as to be a viable off-type player.  She wasn’t playing as hard as SS Lusamine, but this is something Giovanni had a lot more trouble with in the meta shift, so finally, something she had over him.

But hey, you know, Psychic types are now really common, and they all like the Terrain bonus.  With only two setters, there’s still an argument that Caitlin shouldn’t be one of them.  Opportunity cost still exists to some degree, even if it’s relaxed.

Fortunately she gets yet another boon, in the form of Lucian.  Growl debuffs both attack and special defense of the foe reliably, while also boosting speed for the team.  Lowering attack means her physical bulk is improved in the same way Anni May saves special defense.  Lowering special defense means Caitlin’s damage goes way up without the need for Terrain.  Speed means gauge control, and Dawn’s back on All Ramped Up.  This produced a second team composition that still worked wonders for Caitlin, solving basically every problem she had.  Best of all, Lucian has tremendous sync nuke capability, meaning he can easily take every sync, while Caitlin emphasizes move damage, to fish for Catalytic Cure and reap the benefits of Healthy Healing.

But if you really need her to have Psychic Terrain, good news: Bede exists.  Bede is terrible with Caitlin, but he frees up opportunity cost by providing Psychic Terrain for more aggressive peers.  Bede’s only got one use of Psychic Terrain, but can also debuff special defense, meaning your SS Lusamine’s billion damage attacks can actually blast through a stage in that one use.  Giovanni with this guy is incredible, since debuffed special defense kicks off all his multipliers.  With Bede, your terrain users are freed up to other, less powerful options like Caitlin.  Suddenly, opportunity cost barely even exists.  She’s free to take Anni May.

Make no mistake, base Caitlin is not setting any particular records.  The introduction of Zones really shows how far behind her peers she can be.  No multipliers and inconsistent healing is a pain.  But in spite of these faults, Caitlin has managed to maintain relevance, and carve out a decent niche through two similar team comps that play to her strengths.  Honestly, it’s satisfying.  Caitlin’s one of my favorites, and is quite literally the reason I picked up this game.  It was a rough eight months, watching Giovanni and all these powerhouse Psychic types leave Caitlin in the dust, but life’s really turned around with the right supports to make her bulky offense playstyle shine.

[subzeroiceskater]

FINE JUST THE FIRST CHAPTER

I've always appreciated the work and effort of fanslators through all time so while appreciate this exists...man, that's some awkward wording.

Like, sometimes, I see criticisms by professional J-E translators online who say "Wow this sucks" and I'm all "well, it sounds natural to me". So if something pings to me as sounding unnatural, that's not a good sign.

Cute Man. 😊

Okay, so I see where this series is going and can't say I'm a fan. I'm thinking about "What about this thing obviously made for children...but IN REAL LIFE? Applied with REAL LOGIC???" deconstruction and the only series I'm thinking where I enjoyed that kind of thinking was mecha and 20th century boys.

If's trying to get me to feel pathos for these guys--in theory, I should all about this shit because favorite characters + existential angst + robots =a good time. But I just feel annoyed. Trying to articulate why...I guess if you're gonna do this whole deconstruction thing, then well, we better get into the whole system (HINT: Capitalism) that made them this way. And I really doubt this 13 pager a chapter of a *checks tags* comedy manga to really sell me that concept.

Like, really, you're not gonna get into why scientist would be into building sentient machines.

*cups hands* It's coz he's the main character. It's really unfair but we're not really going into the whole "What a measure is a non-human" in this manga.

OH WAIT another Urasawa work--Pluto! Yeah, man, that shit was so good at retelling, making things more 'realistic' but at the same time keeping the established stuff in Tezuka's robot world and exploring the human-robot, robot-robot, human-human relations. I loved that comic and I don't even really know the Astro Boy/Tezuka mythos, lol. That's kinda unfair to compare Urasawa to anyone, though.

Like originally I was just gonna post this panel and say "based" and leave it that but if this is all this comic is gonna say about humanity's interest, attachment and affection with robotics (that's humans are irrational and the only affection that could from are from robot fetishists) then that's disappointing.

I don't know if I ever said/wrote this anywhere but one of my first thoughts when thinking Mega Man's level of technology is "man the prosthetic game must be top grade" and the second thought is "the sexbot game must be insane". Like, okay, think about all the weird shit people fuck with already with our world and add the level of tech on Mega's world.

As intrigued I am about my boy Cut bringing up love (HUMAN-ROBOT relations???) and whatever the fuck is going on with Enker, I really have to lay this down for my own peace of mind. Mostly because if I read this I'll be chomping at the bit to dumb shit on this website. That's mostly the reason why I've avoided reading Ariga or Archie's comic until now--because I wanted to get my thoughts and ideas down without getting too influenced by their takes. Because if I read those I'm gonna be writing in reaction to their ideas, whether good or bad or no matter how interesting or not. I mean, most of ideas is already sort of reaction of other fan's reactions on the Mega Man mythos.

Yes, I've been thinking about this shit since 2019 and it fucking burns me I didn't complete it. It's no masterpiece and it can't compete with this guy or anyone on basic competence but it's mine, damn it.

[blazehedgehog]

What are your thoughts on the infamous "Top Ten Hottest Female Sonic Characters" video? I don't mean that question as a joke, do you think that that video kinda set back the image of "Sonic fan" back for a good few years?

My stance on this has always been that everyone on the internet is weird about something, and Sonic fans are not necessarily weirder than anything you’d find if you overturned a rock in another corner of the internet.

This is an immutable fact that becomes more obvious the more time you spend online. Spend enough time online and you’re going to see something you didn’t know existed, and if you spend too much time online, eventually you start to become numb to it.

In isolation I think that video is meaningless. There’s lots of things out there of that caliber -- the “Andy drawing a map of Princess Peach’s Eyes” image, for example. You might know of that image, but not many people know that it was only one of many. There was a whole series of those comics that was basically “me, a human male of the real world, repeatedly express my deep romantic affection for Princess Peach.”

Or, like, Pokemon, right? I remember in the early days of the Let’s Play community, Pokemon Let’s Plays had to be permanently banned from SomethingAwful on all grounds because it attracted thirsty creepers who weren’t very subtle about their feelings towards underage girls.

Like I said, there’s weird stuff all over the place if you point the spotlight in the wrong directions. And for some people out there, it’s part of growing up -- more and more of the internet is being taken up by the awkward intellectual awakening period we experience in transition from child to adult. A lot of earnest emotional confusion is being permanently recorded out there for all to see as we all figure ourselves out.

Tangentially, I see discussion today about how Zoomers in particular are a generation that has no guilt and openly embraces the cheesy and the stupid with genuine love, and I think it’s related to that. They can’t hide from who they were as kids, they just kind of have to own it. I can respect that.

What I think happened with Sonic is just the games themselves being so bad. Getting things like Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic 2006, or even the later Ken Penders run of the Archie comics, whatever, and kind of forcing the question: “If they’re always so terrible, why do they keep making more?”

That naturally leads to one answer: because Sonic fans keep buying them. So what’s wrong with Sonic fans?

“Well I saw this video one time...”

“There’s this webcomic about this medallion...”

“Have you seen what these church kids are drawing?”

In the big picture, nothing out of the ordinary is actually happening here. Kids are being kids (broadly speaking). It's a natural effect of Sonic maintaining a certain level of popularity with a certain age group for a sustained period of time.

I’ve even talked about how Sonic has kind of reached this status where the franchise is almost a perpetual motion machine. Sega couldn’t kill Sonic the Hedgehog at this point if they tried. It’s become this thing like Star Trek or Transformers where fans will just exist forever, even during lulls in quality or breaks in media. They will churn out their own new content and feed each other for theoretical eternity. If Sonic has survived this much for this long, it is immortal.

But that also means that, like... what is a “brand”? It’s a set of standards and rules governing the appearance and behavior of a specific piece of intellectual property. In order to be “on-brand” you have to adhere to the rules, otherwise you are not allowed to be part of the brand. Luigi is always taller than Mario. Mega Man’s briefs are always a different color than his arms and thighs. Sonic the Hedgehog can never cry.

Fans don’t have to stay on brand. The “brand” is whatever they think it should be. They can do anything with the characters, take them anywhere, write anything they feel like, embarrassing or not. Sonic the Hedgehog is a ghost now? Sure why not. Tails is part of a massive crossover involving every cartoon media property in a war against internet bullying? Nobody can stop you. You can just make up anything and do it. Sega probably wouldn't approve, but if you're a fan, you don't need their approval. You just need faith in your own ideas.

And this even applies to big budget, professional work. We've seen it before, when Sega lets other people redesign Sonic. Style guides and brand rules are what keeps a character in check so they look and act in a consistent way, but if you pull back the curtain and look at what gets submitted before the rules are applied...

...then even professional, “official” designs start getting pretty weird. Artistic license is great and all but people will break characters over their knee and remake them as something unrecognizable if you give them enough room to do so.

And for a fandom, not only can they be like this all the time, forever, they can go even further beyond. When you have an imagination, the sky is the limit.

And, again, I say “fandom” there. Not just Sonic fandom, but all fandoms, everywhere. They always were, and always will be like this. (And, to be clear: that’s great!)

The only difference is, Sega’s own inability to stay consistent gave more people a reason to go turning over rocks and seeing what crawled out. Unsurprisingly, a very active, self-sustaining fanbase meant there was a lot to see.

[robotnikholmescomicblog]

Okay, two things:

1: Have you ever looked at the Zone Cops and thought “Hey, they remind me of the Justice Department from Judge Dredd”? I maybe reaching it, but with the uniforms and everything, it’s either for me to think that they’re the closest thing Sonic has to adapting the setting of Judge Dredd in their canon and fanon works at the moment, even if Zonic isn’t as grim as Joseph Dredd compared to the probable No Zone Shadow, so long as he’s not a defense attorney.

2: I know Archie Sonic Online and Retold started by changing the story arc before the Mega Man Crossover, but do you think that maybe diverting things during the crossover might be a more preferable option than what they depicted? With respect to those fan comic makers, I think that the echidna decline could’ve been something to work with in the long term, and since Penders wouldn’t necessarily be involved, it doesn’t exactly have to be permanent.

Hey, man!

1. Honestly, if I watched more 90s sci-fi/action I would know more about the setting of Judge Dredd, but I would have probably made the connection too. The eye-obscuring helmets certainly seem inspired by the one the titular hero wears.

When I think of the Zone Cops and their inspiration, I think more of @chauvel 's awesome comic than Judge Dredd. xD

2. Both Archie Sonic Online and Retold are great in their own ways! I follow both of em and enjoy what stories they tell if the whole "Genesis Wave" thing never happened. I think it was a good choice for them to not have their stories start during the Mega Man crossover, cause it put a damper on the otherwise light-hearted crossover and it be more dramatic for them to just return home and discover the whole Echidna decline. Then again, I might have missed something in Retold so maybe I'm missing a few things. xP