#naugus

[mischeva]

think it would be cool if he was more ratigan shaped….. anyways

[tacorerooster]

So this came up a bit ago on

@bumblekast A Zeti Naugus or Zaugus if you will. Plus some Old Man Yaoi for the Culture

(also know as O My)

[nightfurylover31]

I think Naugus ships it. 😆

BONUS!

[arctidesregalis]

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: Next, Murdercide626 has a question. "How would you go about adapting Naugus into the games? What changes might you make to the character? Classic or Modern? And what kinds of interactions would he have with Eggman, if any?"

IAN FLYNN: Okay, hear me out, 'cause this is... I'm alone on this hill for this idea, okay? I freely admit that this is- this is the bonkers take, but hear me out: completely remake him as a Zeti. Okay? KYLE: Uh... y'know... y'know... IAN: He's already some weird monster man, it wouldn't take a whole lot to adjust him to still be familiar but be more Zeti-like. And instead of him being able to use his EM powers to control machines, he uses it to mess with the bio-electrical signals in your brain, so he has the mind control angle. KYLE: Hmm... okay, so he would be a modern character then, huh? IAN: Yeah. And all you gotta do is turn that 'N' sideways, and he's Zaugus. KYLE: [laughing] Zaugus! Well, I think you've done it, Ian. You have done it. Good old Zixis Zaugus. [chuckles] What kind of interactions would he have with Eggman, then? Would he manage to mind control Eggman? IAN: Yeah, like maybe Eggman's comin' in to invade and he's, y'know, EM-shielded all of his robots and gloatin' over the fact that the Deadly Six can't take control of them. Zaugus saunters on up, and is like [Ixis Naugus voice] "I may not control them, but I can control you!" Zoop! Mind-grab. KYLE: Boy, that-- IAN: [Mentok from Harvey Birdman voice] "That's taking the mind, Kyle!" KYLE: [laughing] That is horrifying! That's like... that is very- that is scary! Like, I think he might actually take over Eggman in terms of villainy in the series at that point. Hm. IAN: Like, maybe limit it to, like, it's gotta be within eye contact, it's gotta be point-to-point... maybe he can only really control one person at a time. But if you've got the keys to Eggman's Empire, or if you're using Sonic as your personal RC combatant, you can do some damage. I don't know, I think it could work. I think it could be neat. I- I also know it's a big ask of the SatAM crowd, but I don't know. I like it. KYLE: I- Someone- you could make it work! It could work. Someone's going to draw this, Ian. You know they will. IAN: Oh, go for it. KYLE: Let's see it! IAN: Even- you can keep, like, the mutant crab claw on the side as like, just extra weirdness. KYLE: Sure, sure. IAN: Give him back his old tail from SatAM that got forgotten in the Archie books. KYLE: [chuckles] Nice.

--- TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Please remember that nothing that is said on BumbleKast is canon! It's just some guys and their opinions occasionally spitballing ideas. If you don't like an answer, you don't have to take it as Word of God or anything like that. It's all just for fun! ----- This question was requested by @nintendoni-art! Do you want a specific question transcribed and posted? Send the question and the episode date to my ask box! Or if you just want questions about a certain character, send me their name and I will see what I can do!

[toaarcan]

Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally, Part 2: Naugus

Part 1 is here.

Been a while.

I originally intended to make Part 2 about how this story has the wrong villains, just like it had the wrong protagonists, but I feel like I need to talk about this specific one on his own first.

So, Ixis Naugus. His grand return to the comics after spending most of Flynn's run as basically Mogul's dog. I actually really like Naugus as a bad guy, he's a lot of fun, most of the time, and I will say that I find his role in this arc probably the most enjoyable of all the villains in it. That's a low bar, but he clears it with great ease while everyone else does the limbo under it.

Naugus' role in this story is to take over the Republic of Acorn, and further ramp up the "Darkest hour" leanings by contributing to everything going wrong at once. That's kinda... all he really does. His magic is a potential solution to Mecha Sally being weaponised, as he is shown to be able to deroboticize Bunnie's 100% artificial limbs, but his decaying mental state, loss of control of his powers, and clear confusion as to how he did that in the first place aren't helping him.

Later on he's seen trying to make bargains with Max and Jules, so that he can steal their bodies as his degrades, and being rebuffed, only to end up taking over Geoff's. This is more or less the last we see of him pre-reboot.

I don't entirely hate this, but I think it's perhaps a bit ill-timed. The protagonists lose so much in the opening stages of this arc that it becomes a bit too bleak. If the heroes themselves managed to survive, but they lost everything else, great. But since the other members of the team are also dropping like flies, it just feels bad.

Still, I can respect the idea of what Flynn and co. were going for.

Where the problems really arise is the execution. Because Naugus' plan is really stupid. It only works because everyone involved is either really stupid, mind-controlled, or both, and that it works at all says worrying things about the way the Republic of Acorn's government is set up.

That's right, I'm criticising a Sonic the Hedgehog comic based on its political structure. Look, if you don't want dorks on the Internet to do that, don't put arcs focused on politics in your Sonic the Hedgehog comic, okay? This isn't an "Adult fan of Steven Universe confused by show for kids for not following their idea of political praxis", this is "Flynn literally wrote an arc about giving democracy to the people of Mobius and then used that democracy exclusively to make the heroes' lives harder in ways that shouldn't be possible."

Naugus' plan is, on the face of it, very simple. In the wake of Sally, Elias, and Amadeus reforming the Kingdom of Acorn into some sort of constitutional monarchy, Naugus intends to use the new political structure to take power by getting himself elected King. He will do this by exploiting the people's fears, using his magic to turn them against their protectors and leaders, and presenting himself as the solution.

Okay, fairly simple, this works on some level. But it's got issues.

Problem #1: Ixis Naugus is a known traitor and is responsible for the Great War.

There's a solid argument to be made that much of Archie Sonic is Ixis Naugus' fault. Like, the central conflict of the series is the long-term consequences of his actions. He deliberately sparked the Great War between the Mobians and the Overlanders, which resulted in one Julian Robotnik betraying his people and joining the Mobian side, only to use the war to increase his own power and then betray the Mobians as well, taking over. While he was eventually killed by Snively in Issue #50, his control over the world was so great and so long-lasting that the people of the world weren't able to fully dismantle his empire before his interdimensional counterpart, Eggman, made his appearance, and easily stepped into the void, continuing right where Robotnik left off.

While there have certainly been threats and villains that Mobius has faced from outside the context of the Robotniks, Naugus' machinations have demonstrably caused the main conflict of the series. This is known history- Chuck, who is on the Council, tells it to Tails and Amy like it's relatively common knowledge later on.

Not only that, Naugus was last seen by most of these people when he escaped from their prison. He's literally an escaped convict who didn't finish serving his sentence.

Fortunately for Naugus, his ass is saved by the fact that the Republic of Acorn doesn't have any legal protections against letting literal supervillains walk in and demand to be made king. When most of the Council get up to help Sonic fight him off, quite sensibly, Naugus is able to stop them by using his magical influence to make Rosemary and Penelope follow the rules really hard, which apparently doesn't include "Don't let known enemies of the state waltz in and demand the crown" for some reason.

Given the number of Sonic villains who use mind control in some shape or form, and the number of villains who want to take over the Acorn Republic, you'd think they'd have better safeguarding against this exact situation, but I guess they didn't think about that when they wrote their constitution.

Problem #2: Naugus' campaign is a singular issue and only affects the population of one city.

Naugus' plan to get made king is, assuming that he avoids just getting his ass beat, to use the population's newfound fear of Nicole to present himself as a protector.

This is a pretty clever move on his part, all told, because he kinda has a point. They live in a city made of nanobots that are all controlled by one person, who has no limits in place to prevent her from turning the city against them if she goes bad. Nicole has an enormous amount of power over the city, a city that, prior to her taking control of it, was a self-replicating grey goo monster that tried to eat people. She's able to shape those nanobots into anything she pleases, teleport anyone inside it wherever she chooses, create forcefields, and make people's own possessions turn on them.

And sure, she didn't want to turn on them in the Iron Dominion arc... but she still did. Regina turned Nicole against them with a wave of her hand and there was nothing in place to protect Nicole from that, or protect the people from Iron Nicole.

By using this as his campaign's main point, Naugus has the heroes over a barrel. There aren't really any good arguments against what he's saying, in fact, all he had to do to bring everything to a fever-pitch was amplify the already-existent fear that had turned Mina against Nicole. It's a pretty clever gambit. All the good guys really have against him is attacks on his character and defences of Nicole's, which help nobody.

However, there's a small problem with this: Not everyone in the Republic of Acorn lives in New Mobotropolis.

Places like Furville are Acorn territory. The Southern Baronies are also Acorn territory. They're not the only places that are, either. The Republic of Acorn is an entire country, and Naugus' campaign is laser focused on just the capital.

"I will protect you from the scary computer lady" has literally no impact on anyone living outside of New Mobotropolis, who don't have a scary computer lady but sure as hell are going to remember the pain and trauma that has resulted from Naugus' machinations in the past.

So, how does Naugus reach these people, then? If he has Mobotropolis on lock, how does he get the rest of the country behind him?

Well, that's simple. He doesn't. The people outside of Mobotropolis just don't get a vote.

Which is, uhhhhh... well it's certainly interesting. A reformation to give "Power to the people" has apparently only given power to the people of one city. Everyone else is just as unable to have a say in their government as they were when the Acorns were an absolute monarchy controlled by a magic puddle of piss.

Considering that every actual member of the Council is from New Mobotropolis, this doesn't say great things about how the Council was set up. Did those other towns and cities get a vote back when the Council was formed? Because they have no representation in their own government.

And it's not like they couldn't have had Naugus win over the people in the outer reaches of the kingdom, it would just have taken longer than Flynn wanted it to. Naugus could have gone on a charm offensive around all of Acorn, even using this very same disenfranchisement as a tool, but he never would've been able to pull this off before the mandated "Story starts at 225" deadline.

Moreover, there's no election at all. There's no formal process he challenges Elias to overcome, no debates, no voting. Naugus kills a robot, a mob cheers for him, Geoff steals the crown off of Elias' head and gives it to Naugus, and this apparently counts enough for the Council to go with it.

Now, an argument can be made that since this isn't a proper election, then normally non-residents of New Mobotropolis do get a vote and they only don't get a say because Naugus wins through will of the mob... but again, the Council goes with it. There's no argument from them as to whether this is legitimate. They don't say anything on behalf of their people outside of the city's borders.

As a body that literally exists to stop whoever wears the crown doing whatever the hell they want, the Council are not doing their jobs. They are either incompetent, negligent, or impotent.

And no "Naugus has mind control" isn't an excuse, his powers in this arc don't outright hypnotise or brainwash people, they work by amplifying emotions and thoughts they already have. Unless they already intended to capitulate, he wouldn't be able to make them do what he wants.

Still, there's way this could've actually worked, on a similar timescale, without needing to change too much.

Instead of Naugus trying to make himself king explicitly, he should've made Geoffrey king, with him ruling from the shadows.

Geoffrey is not an escaped convict or known traitor. The only person he has betrayed is Sonic, who is the only available witness. Geoff can easily argue that Sonic is lying, and is biased because of his connections to Sally and Elias.

Geoffrey partook in the defence of New Mobotropolis against the Iron Queen. His heroics are fresh in the populace's minds.

Geoffrey has spent a lot of time outside of the capital, and could either have deliberately built up support with people in outlying areas, or just organically become very popular with them.

Geoffrey has a long history of good deeds and heroics, which he can doubtlessly leverage against the Acorns, of whom only Sally really gets seen doing anything.

Geoffrey's wizard status isn't as well-known, so if he gets his shit kicked in by a deranged cuckoo in a pirate outfit, he doesn't immediately lose face as a powerful guardian.

If Geoffrey turns on him, Naugus can just possess him and continue to rule directly, rather than through a puppet.

This way, Geoffrey can arrive to the stage with a ready-built powerbase ready to support him in a snap-election. By the time he even challenges Elias, he's basically already won. Mobotropolis is just the last place he has to get to support him, which he achieves by targeting Nicole. More or less the same outcome happens, without the other characters needing to grab the idiot ball for dear life.

This could end up taking longer to play out than it did for real, but Naugus was always going to be a problem that didn't get dealt with until after Mecha Sally herself, so why not do it this way? Barring the real-life problems that would've hindered this arc, like Penders, of course. Because it's not like the story we got ended in time either, for those same reasons.

There's an argument to be made that Naugus' ego would never allow him to do this, that he'd need to be the one in the spotlight, but he's no stranger to working in the shadows or manipulating the current king with his schemes, this would not be out of character for him.

Next time, I'll cover the other villains of this story, Eggman and Mecha Sally herself. And oh boy do I have a lot to say about Mecha Sally herself.

[disabled-battlekukku]

Not a fan of Geoffrey St. John as a guy, but man, am I obsessed with this guy in a "I want to see his very tragic backstory and then torture him for eternity because he's actually a fucking horrible person"

And it was this fucking page that made me have this feeling ESPECIALLY

The raw hopelessness of laying curled on the ground, knowing you're never getting out of the situation YOU put yourself in in the first place (<- half projecting)

[shc2c]

We're back with the Penultimate Set of SATAM episodes. Wonder where a shit ton of Archie Sonic Lore Originated from? Watch this episode!

[mikaila-orchard]

Did someone say Archie Sonic re-imaginings?

...No?

Well, here it is anyway.

[mischeva]

If Naugus has a 1,000,000 fans, I’m one of them. If Naugus has 10 fans, I’m one of them. If Naugus has 1 fan, that’s me. If Naugus has no fans, I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Naugus, I am against the world.

References under cut 🧙‍♂️

[murdercide626]

So I have a theory about the Sonic SatAM episode "Super Sonic". In this episode, Dr. Robotnik learns of an ancient evil wizard named Lazaar who had been asleep for centuries.

Lazaar had a compendium of numerous powerful spells stored in a crystal computer. Naturally, Robotnik then tracks it down in order to wield its power for himself.

My theory/headcanon is this: Not only did Robotnik want this magic crystal so as to gain near omnipotence and crush any and all rebel groups opposing him (especially Sonic), but I believe he also wished to gain this magic power as a contingency.

A contingency for what? Why, none other than Robotnik's former associate, and fearsome wielder of the dark arts, Naugus.

Robotnik is obviously a master in the realm of science, but he has little means of fending off magical opponents. The only thing that could beat magic is magic.

And not only is Naugus a master of his craft, to the point that he can instantly transmogrify matter with a mere snap of his fingers, but after Robotnik's betrayal, Naugus has been fuming for many years in the Void, waiting to exact horrible vengeance on the scientist should he ever return.

So I believe that Robotnik was on the hunt for any old magic relics that could possibly fend off Naugus should the unthinkable happen and the old wizard managed to somehow free himself. It pays to be prepared, after all.

Unfortunately for Robotnik, Sonic and his rebel friends always managed to keep him from possessing any useful arcane artifacts, and that would cost him dearly...

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[magnetisticc]

experimental thing

[geoffreystjohn]

terrifying indecipherable beasts from old spaz covers part one

[sonicpanels]

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Ongoing) #66: "A Friend In Deed"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Inks: Pam Eklund Letters: Jeff Powell Colors: Ken Penders

Editor: Justin Gabrie Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick