#but just think about how this seemed with only Lanolin’s context

[pocketscribbs]

“That’s a bold accusation. Do you have any proof?”

“We will soon.”

[kingmaxstatic]

In Defense Of Lanolin, A Post About Perspective, Flaws and Development. (Part 1: The Incidents)

Hey there everyone! It's time for another ✨Max Opinion Moment✨. Out of all of the IDW characters I think Lanolin is the character I've seen get the most hate. I'm not just talking about "I dislike this character" I'm talking I've seen posts where people act like Lanolin killed their family sort of hate.

Today I plan on defending Lanolin as a character! Talking about the main panels that caused this hatred and why I think she's... actually justified in her actions!

DISCLAIMER! This post is not meant to say "You can't DISLIKE Lanolin!". You're allowed to have your opinions of the character!

with all of that out of the way, let's talk sheep! Buckle up! Because this is a long one! (So long I might have to make a part 2)

Case #1: The Paddle Ball Incident

One of the earliest examples (comic timeline wise) was this set of panels! I've seen people actually seethe over these panels. Now I want to explain why I, personally, understand why she's taken the paddle away from her!

Lanolin is talking about important stuff here! Tangle is ACTIVELY interrupting the conversation by playing with the paddle ball in her face. Also, as an autistic person, I personally know how distracting those noises can be!

People also seem to forget that Lanolin, a few pages earlier, looks EXHAUSTED. That is not the face of a sheep that's well rested. Of course she's going to be irritable!

You'd be a bit of a bitch too if you were trying to talk about important stuff and someone was cutting off the conversation by fiddling with something really loud in your face! It's like if you were trying to present a school project you worked all night on and someone started playing a really loud video next to you.

Does this make Tangle a bad person? Of course not! She's energetic and gets bored easily (trust me girl, I get it.) but Lanolin isn't bad for being upset.

Case 2: The Duo Incident

THIS is the main reason a lot of people hate Lanolin as a character. Though in the timeline it's the second panel people will point to as justification for wanting this fictional sheep dead. This is the part of the post where I talk a LOT about perspective and justification.

Get ready for a LOTTTT of panel posting to add context.

SO Let's discuss the main perspective we see, Silver and Whisper's

Silver and Whisper know something is up with Duo, hell Whisper hits the nail right on the head when she instantly assumes Duo to be Mimic! This all happens after Mimic sneakily kicks Silver and Whisper notices.

Another event this happens is when Mimic basically leaves Silver for dead and what does he say after Lanolin asks him where silver is?

"I'm sorry I couldn't save him... the teeth... so big."

From LANOLIN'S PERSPECTIVE, Duo is the new guy, inexperienced and doesn't know how to deal with badniks and this one was HUGE. So from HER pov Duo did his best to save Silver and just simply couldn't. Of course she doesn't know that Duo is Mimic.

So what do Whisper and Silver do after they assume there's a traitor amongst them?

"We're Going Hunting."

Silver and Whisper don't first contact Lanolin or the others, they jump INSTANTLY to murder. The next panel we sees Silver and Whisper in in this arc is them camping in a bush, ready to shoot this Mimic.

Once again, I need to emphasize, they DID NOT discuss this with Tangle or Lanolin. They jumped to murder. This is a rash choice on both of their ends.

I also want to point out that Lanolin acted a lil playful and friendly... before she saw Whisper coming out of the bushes with her wispon.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize what Whisper is implying here. She wants to kill someone. Justified? Yes, Mimic is a horrible person who seems to only know one word, betray. But from Lanolin's perspective Duo is a newbie who's only crime was being inexperienced. She does not know Duo is Mimic.

She even asks "The Shape-Shifter? That's a big accusation. Do you have any proof?" She isn't saying "Whisper, this guy clearly isn't mimic." She's saying "If you have proof he's mimic, show it instead of shooting this person I assume is innocent.".

and Whisper responds "We will soon."

Whisper then walks forward and proceeds to grab Lanolin's arm and move it, if you have a keen eye, you'll notice it was the arm Lanolin was using to protect Duo.

A teammate is walking towards your other seemingly innocent teammate, accusing them of being someone from their past. They're carrying a loaded weapon and move you out of the way. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen next. Someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed.

So what do you do?

You knock the person down.

What Lanolin does here is knock Whisper over before she does anything and attempts to reason why her. Before whisper then KICKS her legs, trying to knock her over. Thus starts a fight. I'm not gonna post the full panel because we already got the idea.

But afterwards Jewel asks "Hey let me get this straight, you tried to attack this dude based on an assumption"

And Silver is like "Yeah shit guess I was"

THEN Lanolin steps in like "Hey until you can like. think before you act you should stay away from us, kay?"

OKAY SO, TO EMPHASIZE THIS A THIRD TIME. Silver and Whisper decided to try and kill this guy before discussing with their team. Silver is a powerhouse and a well known powerhouse at that. "Yadda Yadda great power, great responsibility." and all that.

People act like Lanolin is banning Silver from ever being in the diamond cutters ever. But she's saying "FOR NOW you can't be one of us.". Until is a word that changes a LOT here. She's also saying "That's my vote." implying she wants the others' input.

Hell this is even more emphasized when Jewel says Tangle has a say in this! Lanolin is saying "Hey, I think Silver shouldn't be around until he grows more, what do you guys think?".

I do think Lanolin has flaws here, she should've tried to give whisper a bit more benefit of the doubt here, but Whisper shouldn't of ALSO jumped to murder. They're BOTH in the wrong here.

PHEW THAT WAS A LONG ONE.

Case #3: The X-Treme Gear Incident

This is the latest Lanolin panel that I've seen spark debate about her! Let's talk about the Diamond Cutters' roles in this arc!

They're referees! They're even called "The Restoration Refs" in issue 70! Basically, people who oversee the race to make sure everyone is playing fair and safe.

She's not doing this because she hates Sonic (okay maybe she has beef with Sonic), Amy and Tails. She's doing this because it was an active threat to everybody else and themselves!

Hell I want to point out that in the first panel of this case, she's pointing at Sonic. Who she has witnessed first hand clearly having a disregard to the rules and safety.

This then proceeded to almost get one of her teammates hurt.

So Lanolin calling Sonic a "Hazard" Isn't too far off. Do I think Lanolin is being harsh here? Yeah. Hell even the comic points out she's being harsh after the first panel of this case.

People act like she swiveled around to Tails and went "You suck as an inventor" and spit on him. She's calling the gear "faulty" and "hazards". Shes literally doing her job. I need to emphasize this. Is she being rude? Yes. But she's blunt and it's apart of her character. Tangle is gonna be naive, Whisper's gonna be distant, Lanolin is gonna be blunt.

Bonus Case: The Shattered Glass Incident.

Okay so this isn't one that I've seen people hate on Lanolin for but I... have seen the Anti-Lanolin squad be weird over this panel. Being all like "HA!! Not as perfect as she thought!" and "She's finally facing the consequences of her actions!!"

What actions?

Ah yes! Stopping Sonic from endangering more racers!

Lanolin broke the glass, yes. She acted quickly, yes. This wasn't her scheming and being like "Heehee!! Time to put all these people in danger for some reason!!"

Let's call it what it is.

A Mistake.

Something people are allowed to make, something Lanolin is allowed to make. This isn't some sort of "her getting what's coming to her" it's her realizing she fucked up. Let her make mistakes and let them BE mistakes!

But yeah, if you've read this all the way through, thank you! I had a lot of fun making this (despite how exhausted I am of the lanolin hate train). Hopefully I'll actually make that part 2! Because that would be more so me talking about Lanolin's flaws, her role, and her backstory! Things I like to discuss (I do not like being a hater).

[skaruresonic]

I vaguely remember people justifying Lanolin's disposition with "well it's a character flaw, God forbid we have unpleasant women"

But since we lack the context to explain why Lanolin is Like That(tm), it's just a bitter pill we have to swallow. Not that context would have exonerated her of her behavior, but it certainly would have done some work to mitigate the knee-jerk "dude, the fuck is your problem?" I feel when she glares at her teammates for no real reason. You can have unpleasant women without making them complete unlikable assholes for no reason.

She hasn't earned her authority; she orders the others around as if she does. The book doesn't explain her rigidity as the result of anxiety or trauma and she's always explaining things through a soldier's perspective.

I expect cleanliness, organization, and discipline from you. But I won't afford you the benefit of the doubt - one strike and you're out, Silver. It doesn't matter that you literally helped save the world. That's old hat now.

She's just plain willfully obtuse. She doesn't seem to recognize, let alone care, that Whisper is suffering from trauma and that, despite it, maybe if both Silver and Whisper are saying something's up, it should be looked into? At least? Instead of assuming the worst about them and thinking they're hazing the rookie for no reason?

Tangle, yeah, maybe, she's loud and brash and I could see how her antics would get on somebody's nerves. But does even Tangle warrant being glared at like she's a leper?

I don't even think Lanolin really counts as a part of the #girlboss polycule because the only people she doesn't glare daggers at are boys she likes, like Duo and Sonic. Much feminism, many wow.

It's frustrating because she sees no character growth. Not even someone to check her. To stand up to her, tell her to pull the stick out of her ass, the war is over, and stop treating her supposed teammates like crap.

Like, why does Whisper have to "stop fighting" and get over her trauma already but Lanolin is allowed to march around like a drill sergeant because of her supposed trauma? Make it make sense bruh

[beevean]

I came across your IDW post about which ships have been teased in the comic so far, and something that I always find.... surprising, I guess, is that fans do not seem to notice or care just how many ones contain Sonic. One day Sonic gets carried bridal style by Shadow and bam they're bfs now it's canon Sega approved this everybody!!!!!!! The next Blaze is making googly eyes at him and Sonaze canon everybody!!!! Sonic held Lanolin's hand it's canon!!!!!!! Amy is gushing and blushing and oh my god it is totally canon!!!!!!!! (Where, funnily enough, Sonic carrying Amy bridal style elicited much less of such a reaction than Shadow carrying Sonic did in the It Is Canon Now debate, at least from what I could tell on Tumblr. Though considering this is Tumblr, I can think of some reasons, lol.) This happens in the games as well, except the fact I do feel those lean a lot less into deliberate ship teasing like the comic does.

And you know.... if there is so much to be teased in IDW and so much "canon" and every single issue at this point contains a different character for Sonic to be making his smug face at while they simp and/or get all tsundere... maybe it is a clear sign that all this means nothing and is only put in to make fans go "!!!!!! THEY APPROVED MY SHIP I AM SUPERIOR NOW TO ALL OTHER SHIPS CUZ IT IS IN OFFICIAL [*cough, cough*] MEDIA!!1!!1" as opposed to actually going anywhere for Sonic ship-wise? Not that the fans will ever realise that, sigh.

I noticed, actually. The only non-Sonic ships that so far have been teased are Whispangle (and how), Knuxamy in #62, and absolutely accidentally Staregg in the MV arc lol (I don't care how accidental it was, Staregg OTP in my heart :< starline totally wanted to clap those eggcheeks don't @ me)

I think I saw a tweet jokingly calling Sonic a slut when #63 dropped? Don't quote me on that though, I don't remember the phrasing but it was a joke about how many people he has flirted with recently lol (including the heavy Sonknux vibes of Frontiers)

(it's also funny that Sonamy gains far less traction than all those other ships lol. Maybe it's because it's almost "canon" and so not as interesting. Or maybe we know why :^) )

But yeah. I understand enjoying the crumbs of ship teasing, I really do, especially for the minor ones such as Sonaze (Sonanolin is kinda funny though lol, I doubt that one has many fans). But there's a difference between "HOLY SHIT THEY HELD HANDS THAT'S CUTE" and "HOLY SHIT THEY HELD HANDS IT'S TOTALLY CANON GUYS!!!". And cynically, the overabundance of teases involving Sonic can be explained as 1) him being the protagonist and the more interesting character to ship, to generate views and attention (only, like, 6 people cared about the Knuxamy tease and i was one of them), and 2) the dude is so irrelevant in his own comic that this is the best they can think for him. The OCs deal with a semi-serious plot, and the titular character protagonist of the massive franchise IDW Sonic is attached to is reduced to shallow fanfic fuel. Granted, I'll take slut Sonic over Preachy Pope Sonic any time of the day, but you get what I mean.

The Sonadow teasing is IMO the worst. Sonic emotionally manipulates Shadow in #6 by making leverage on the way he had been twisted to carry out Gerald's evil plans? OMG THEY'RE TOTALLY SHARING BEDROOM EYES SONIC SO WANTS TO FUCK HIS BF <3 Shadow is an utter cunt for the entirety of the Chao Racing arc? AWWWWW MY LITTLE GAY BABIESSSSSSS SONIC IS SO HAPPY TO FALL IN HIS ARMS AS SHADOW INSULTS HIMMMMM <3 NVM THAT SHADOW SAID IN #19 THAT SONIC DESERVED TO BE PAINFULLY INFECTED <3 <3 <3 And you know what I also roll my eyes at "I heart you too Shadow" from Prime, for how out of context it was taken. I didn't watch Prime in full, but I did read IDW, and there is no way you can see a healthy chemistry between Sonic and Shadow if you actually pay attention to the whole story and dialogue. ... the fact that Flynn hosted a whole Bumblekast episode dedicated to Sonadow at the end of Pride Month also doesn't help, he deliberately fanned the flames because he knew how much his fans would eat from his hand :\

As for the games, yeah, the ship teasing is usually played for laughs or subtle and understated. Amy went from comically chasing Sonic, to having more serious moments such as her hugging him in the ending of Frontiers. Knuckles and Rouge had some odd tension by the end of their arc in SA2. Sonic and Blaze had that whole "slowly holding hands" moment at the end of Rush. Sonic and Elise... yeah that one took a decade to be accepted for how prominent it is. ShTH is still the king of teasing ofc :P the series is mostly about friendship, not romantic love.