#none of this is real ;; metal amy

[fstbmp-a]

"Robo. Wants an." Crushes the railing gripped in her hand with a loud metallic whine. "Oreo."

[zosonils-art]

rewatched the sonic ova a few months ago. since then i've thought a bit too hard about the only loosely explained way that hyper metal sonic was created, been irreversibly changed by the idea of a sonic who wakes up in a body that isn't his and discovers that all his memories and friendships and adventures belong to someone else now, rekindled my obsession with the various metal sonics of pre-reboot archie, and finally learned how to care about sonic heroes

photon is basically every version of metal sonic ever, a few of the charmingly edgy aus i wrote when i was 11, and a few sonic cd fan theories all thrown in a blender and kicked down a flight of stairs, and i'm kind of obsessed with him. really, REALLY long infodump and some supplementary scribbles under the cut

WELCOME TO THE PHOTON ZONE

a little after sa2, eggman lures sonic into some trap that pins him down long enough for an electronic copy to be made of his brain. sonic trashes the place and escapes with only a mild headache and a bruised ego, but all the data eggman scraped is intact. as he's creating neo metal sonic, eggman uploads this digital ghost of sonic into him, with the intention to upgrade from having a fancy bootleg to a truly 'perfect' answer to sonic, who can simulate his entire psyche in real time and know everything he's going to do before he does it

[eggman would love to steal a hedgehog, actually]

unfortunately for eggman, his latest copy is too perfect, and sonic's indomitable will and sense of self easily overpowers any feeble attempts the rest of neo metal sonic's programming makes to keep him in line. pretty much the moment he's booted up, he books it outta there as fast as possible to go find his friends and fix things. with all of sonic's memories embedded in him, the thought that he isn't the real thing doesn't even cross metal's mind - as far as he knows, he made an embarrassing blunder in a dingy old egg base, had something done to his brain, and then woke up miles away in a robot body that eggman must have stuffed him into somehow. he just has to find tails and amy and knuckles and the rest, make sure he didn't hurt any of them during that mysterious gap in his memory, and slap together a plan to get his body back and shove eggman into a puddle. no sweat!

so naturally, it's a bit hurtful when none of his friends believe for a second that he's who he says he is. and it's a LOT hurtful when the real sonic shows up, in the body that's SUPPOSED to be his, and metal suddenly has no idea who or what he is

even though it's not enough to override the sonic personality, eggman's programming is still twisting metal's thoughts. an angry killer robot is an effective killer robot, so any negative emotion or violent impulse is forced to the front of his mind. metal is angry at eggman for doing this to him, and at his friends for not trusting him, and at sonic for existing in the body and life that belong to him, and all of this gets mixed in with the existential despair and knee-jerk denial of what's happening to him and then magnified tenfold. a version of the sonic heroes storyline takes place as metal's mental state worsens exponentially, and he begins to lash out more and more violently at everyone and everything around him in increasingly desperate attempts to prove [mostly to himself] that this other sonic is a fake.

this culminates in the metal overlord battle, where metal [who's escalated from 'prove himself superior to sonic' to 'defeat sonic and force him to admit the truth' to 'literally just kill him, since he's obviously a hyper realistic android sent by eggman or whatever and not a real thing that can feel pain and die'] harnesses the chaos emeralds in a last-ditch effort to prove his strength and reduce the 'fake' sonic to ashes - only for his body to twist and mutate into something so utterly, viscerally Wrong that the fear and confusion cause what's left of sonic in him to just shut down from distress, finally leaving only the mindless killing machine eggman set out to make in the first place and forcing super sonic to step in and kick metal overlord's ass. defeated by the power of friendship, depowered, and severely damaged, metal finally accepts and admits that he isn't the real sonic and probably never was, and doesn't fight it when his systems fail and he loses consciousness

contrary to what his anger had him believe, though, metal's [former?] friends did see that he was suffering and needed answers, and so sonic and tails take him back to the workshop in mystic ruins to shed some light on the whole situation. when tails finds a disturbingly perfect resemblance to an organic brain in the program map, everything finally clicks - what that weird Beam Of Give You Headache sonic got hit by a couple months ago was, how eggman made a metal sonic that knew so much about the real thing's life, why this metal seemed less mechanically violent and more genuinely emotionally distressed. with eggman's loyalty programming scrubbed from his system, metal wakes back up confused and upset but much more 'himself', and even manages a few natural-feeling responses as tails explains what he found and apologises over and over for not being able to help sooner.

he still doesn't like sonic.

metal leaves pretty much as soon as he's in working condition. even when sonic isn't there reminding him that he isn't himself anymore, he can't stand being around a tails who isn't his brother. he takes to wandering the world directionlessly, trying to figure out who he is now and find a place in a world that doesn't remember him. he's not sonic anymore, and it'd be easier to list the things he doesn't hate about being called 'metal sonic' or just metal, so after a while he settles on introducing himself as 'photon' - another intangible fast thing, like sound, but comfortably distant from his old name. [it's also a stupendously petty means of one-upping sonic, light being faster than sound and everything. drama queen.]

the timeline gets way fuzzier after all this overdetailed nonsense, but things do get better for photon. he has an identity now, and it's fragile and cobbled together and still missing pieces, but it belongs to him and nobody else. he strikes up a few odd but sincere friendships - he hangs out with big when he needs a calm and comforting presence, and has a fierce friendly rivalry with shadow underpinned by their quietly shared experience of not knowing whether to trust their own memory, and much later down the line he bonds with belle over the mundane frustrations of being a robot [and, privately, because she's the best fit so far for the tails-shaped hole in his heart]. he keeps up the drifter lifestyle, making new memories to replace painful old ones, finding ways to use his robot abilities for fun or to help people rather than purely as tools of destruction. it's not perfect for photon, he's still deeply bitter and existentially lonely and missing a sense of purpose, but it's Better, and that counts for something

photon is like some of the earlier [western] depictions of sonic in personality - rougher around the edges, more sarcastic and much less sincere, often brushing up against the line between playfully teasing and just being a bully. whereas sonic has grown into the generally kinder and more patient person he is these days thanks to the friends he's made and the adventures he's had, photon split off from him when that character development was just barely starting, and the trauma from his loss of identity made him regress instead of moving forward. he's still a kind person at heart, but that period of artificially inflated anger and despair has left its mark on how he handles his emotions, even if the programming that first caused it is long gone.

powers-wise, photon is pretty much identical to neo metal sonic, albeit with some limitations. he's as fast and strong as the real thing, can shapeshift or use chaos control if he's got an emerald with him, and with all 7 can take on a super form - though since the metal overlord incident, he's refused to try. [i'm leaving it open whether metal overlord is his innate super transformation now or if it was caused by him tapping into the negative energy of the chaos emeralds rather than sonic's usual positive, since both are really fun ideas. either way, becoming metal overlord was way too traumatic for photon to have any interest in trying again for now.]

he can still copy the biodata of living beings that he comes into contact with, but most of his storage space is taken up by the entire organic brain being simulated in realtime, which he's definitely not willing to modify or delete, so he's effectively limited to only the most recent two or three powers he's copied. he shapeshifts a little to reflect the data he's pulling from, mostly because it's fun to imagine what it'd look like. also because i'm a mega man guy. once again it all comes back to worlds collide being peak fiction

this concludes THE PHOTON ZONE, if only because this has been in my drafts for 3 days and i just want to make my damn post already. if the 1400 word infodump didn't make it clear i am VERY obsessed with my sad little metal sonic amalgam lmao. all this and i still had to cut a ton of details to prevent this infodump from being do you love the colour of the photon, so if my unhinged ramblings have convinced you to care about him even a fraction as much as i do i'd be thrilled to answer any followup questions here or on my main!!!!

[napstabl00k]

Do you have any system headcanons for Metal Sonic at all?

Metal Sonic - the base, and the code. when metal sonic gets taken over by its code, it's this one that appears. no real opinions or emotions, exclusively orders and anything input by eggman. [he/him]

metal, the host. teenager-esque. doesn't hold much respect for eggman but recognizes that it's unable to go against him. essentially rolls its eyes every time eggman tells it to do something. [it/its]

nova. she shows up often after they get wrecked. she didn't have a proper identity other than being the one that has the best control of the body until amy picked them up and she decided to sort of base her identity off of what she liked of amy. also the most emotional of them all. wishes they were allowed to have friends. considers sage a sister. none of the other robots though [she/her]

neo. literally just neo. looks like neo, holds the most amount of anger, is capable of showing up outside of when the body is transformed into neo metal sonic, but loathes the way being metal sonic feels. doesn't appear often. everyone else is quite bad at sharing memory unless they personally go into the memory files and search for something in particular, but neo holds all memories with no issues. [no pronouns]

[archoneddzs15]

Sega Mega CD - Sonic the Hedgehog CD

Title: Sonic the Hedgehog CD / ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグＣＤ

Developer/Publisher: Sega CS3 / Sega CS1 / Toei Animation / H.I.C. Co. Ltd. / Sonic Team

Release date: 23 September 1993

Catalogue No.: G-6021

Genre: Action

Two years into the Mega CD's life, Sega gave us Sonic fans a game to enjoy. Directed by the real creator of Sonic (Naoto Ohshima), and introducing such fan favorites as Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, it has become something of a cult classic, partly because of its release on the expensive add-on that most Mega Drive owners did not have access to, and partly because of its visual style and gameplay that makes it stand out from the other classic games in the series. According to Yasushi Yamaguchi, Sonic CD's story takes place between Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

CHAPTER 1: Little Planet - Story

The text for the story is taken from Sonic Origins.

For one month out of the year, an enigmatic miniature celestial body called the Little Planet appears over the enormous Never Lake. Both a place of beauty and wonder, it is said that time moves freely on the planet and that entire sceneries can change in the blink of an eye, all because of the mysterious secret they hold, the seven mystical Time Stones. It is said that whoever possesses these gems will be able to freely move through time, just as the surface of Little Planet does. Almost expectantly, the news of such a place grabs the attention of Dr. Eggman, the mad genius who desires nothing more than world domination. Journeying to the Little Planet, Eggman immediately begins turning it into his personal fortress, littering the landscape with his mechanical genius. Powered not by animals but by the essence of flowers, he sets his army to tear the planet apart so he can claim the Time Stones for himself.

As fate would have it, Sonic the Hedgehog, the speedy blue blur who has stopped Eggman time and again, was also intending on seeing the small, miracle planet, oblivious to the fact Eggman had already beaten him to the locale. Learning of the news that Sonic was fast approaching, Eggman only smiled, excited to put his latest and greatest invention up against the hedgehog, confident that he would finally be able to defeat his archenemy once and for all... What might have otherwise been another simple fight against the genius scientist was immediately complicated by another layer that Sonic only discovered once he set foot in Palmtree Panic. Amy Rose, Sonic's biggest fan and self-proclaimed girlfriend, had been doing what she often did, playing around in an attempt to look into the future. The cards telling her that she had a "destined encounter" with Sonic at Never Lake, she journeyed herself to the Little Planet, immediately becoming excited once she spotted her blue idol. None too pleased with Amy's appearance, she may have been nothing more than a slight bother if not for Eggman's intervention.

At the outskirts of Collision Chaos, Sonic received his first glimpse of Metal Sonic, a robotic duplicate that Eggman created specifically to counter Sonic's every move. In the blink of an eye, the robot snatched up Amy, disappearing into the horizon. Now Sonic must not only stop Dr. Eggman and grab the Time Stones before he does but save Amy Rose from the clutches of his metallic doppelgänger.

"No problem! With a little courage, you can do anything!"

CHAPTER 2: Gameplay

Though some of the terminology is switched around, the basic premise of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog titles remains: to traverse a series of obstacles and enemies within a given level under ten minutes, generally from left to right. While loop-de-loops, spikes, Springs, and an assortment of other standard Sonic elements return, there are enough unique elements to this installment of the platformer series which makes it stand out from the quartet released on the Sega Mega Drive.

Instead of the usual Zone and Act nomenclature, stages are referred to as Rounds which are split into three Zones; the third Zone is significantly shorter than the other two but features a boss encounter with Dr. Eggman at the end. While Sonic the Hedgehog and its Mega Drive sequels had very straightforward battles with the doctor, the fights with him in CD are varied, taking fewer hits but being significantly more complicated and difficult.

One of the essential elements that make the Sonic CD experience unique is the use of the time travel mechanic. Always starting in the Present time zone, the player can make a Sonic jump between the Past and the Future by running across "Time Warp" plates, adorned with the word "Past" or "Future". In each of the four potential periods, one can jump to feature completely new art reflecting where Sonic is, with subtle changes in the layout. What may work as a quick way to blast through a Zone in the Present may be entirely impossible to get through in the Past, and vice versa. The "Time Attack" mode gives the player the option to run through any Zone as fast as possible, the best times being recorded in the Mega-CD's RAM. Probably why this game supports the Mega-CD Back-Up RAM cartridge.

Chapter 3: Soundtrack

Because of the game's presentation on then-cutting-age digital media, Sonic CD was the first in the series to take full advantage of high-quality, Redbook audio. Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata were the ones responsible for the soundtrack, creating a basic theme for the "present" levels and then remixing them for the "past," "good future" and "bad future" variants, altering the mood to reflect on where Sonic was now running but maintaining the basic elements of the core theme. It's worth noting that, though most of the songs are done in Redbook format, each "past" track is done in PCM format, similar to the style in the Mega Drive games. Very oddly the soundtrack is different in the US version, with Sega of America opting for a different soundtrack.

Verdict

So what do I think of Sonic CD? Easily the absolute best out of all the 16-bit Sonic games to me. Gameplay is debatable but I had gotten so used to the Time Travel mechanic that it's hard for me to go back to a Classic Sonic game without it. The soundtrack is absolutely sublime, especially in the Japanese and European versions. And the fact it is now in Sonic Origins, makes me so happy. Also, one note. The US manual for Sonic CD erroneously calls Amy Rose "Princess Sally". No idea where Princess Sally had any relevance in the storyline. Ehhh.....

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

A mess but still underrated.

It's no secret that the development of Rise of Lyric was kind of a mess. The first game released by Big Red Button, an American studio founded by ex-Naughty Dog devs, it went through a few iterations before Sega required it to be released on the Wii U as part of an exclusivity deal. This caused problems for the engine which was not designed for the less powerful hardware, and it shows in persistent performance problems. This combined with an infamously large post-release patch led to the game acquiring an odious reputation in general and particularly among 3D Sonic games, which already have a spotty track record.

Knowing all this, I actually had a good time with this game. It has its strengths and you don't have to dig too hard to find them. The textures may be low-res but it has strong art direction. The slower-paced gameplay with exploration, combat, and puzzle-platforming sections is something I prefer over the usual 3D Sonic style. It's a forgiving co-op adventure set in a sub-universe that I've quickly come to love (mostly thanks to the silly and easy-going TV show). In short, its poor reception is a bit overblown.

The Sonic Boom subseries launched with this game, a 3DS game, a toyline, and a TV show. Archie Comics ran a short spinoff set in this world and another 3DS game followed, as well as a throwaway Hardlight mobile runner game. So far, I think the show is the strongest work: it's a short-form comedy adventure episodic series with emphasis on the funny, and it consistently hits the mark as far as I've seen. (It also struck me as oddly similar to the Donkey Kong Country animated series with its tropical island setting, flamboyant and ineffective villain, and being a French coproduction.) The comic didn't quite nail the tone—aside from the issues written by the show���s writers—and was interrupted by financially-disastrous crossover event shenanigans, and as for this game, well I'll get to that.

Along with refreshing the setting, Sonic Boom reframes its main characters in ways that I appreciate: they work well as comedy characters, with redesigns that better get across their personalities. Sonic has blue arms as he should and a nifty scarf, Amy has a practical tunic and a personality beyond “loves Sonic”, Tails is given goggles and pouches, and Knuckles is now actually big and brawny. New to the main cast is Sticks, an oddball wild child-type character with a raspy voice. She has a great design and works well as an agent of chaos, although some of her "paranoid" humour falls flat for me.

Now that Boom has been cut off as a failed spinoff, Sticks is the biggest loss. She showed up in Runners and the Rio Olympics game and that's it. Also, she's barely in this game! Her role is simply as an NPC who sends you to find collectibles, and she has only a couple of voice lines. It's a real shame, and another symptom of the game's troubled development. As for the rest of the cast, Boom has a lot of fun new side characters, some of whom appear briefly in this, but RoL also includes Metal Sonic and Shadow, who are only in a couple of episodes of the show. Their roles in this game are pretty underwhelming, only showing up for boss fights and then getting forgotten about.

The main new face here is Lyric, a snake cyborg guy who has been imprisoned for a thousand years. The game starts with a few gags to make you think it's still a comedy but when this guy shows up they pretty much drop all that, and in tone the game becomes a pretty bland action story (although I did like the very brief time travel arc). Naturally he teams up with Eggman for a bit before they betray each other, and his army of very shiny robots forms the goon squad that you spend the whole game smashing to bits. The story seems to have been another casualty during development, with none of the show's writers involved and meddling by Sega combined with content cuts leading to a bland and rushed plot despite some clear ambitions.

The four playable characters can be swapped between at any time, as long as they're present in the story (the game frequently separates them into pairs). They largely play the same but also have unique abilities, and get tasked with specific segments tailored to their skills (often in 2D). For example, Knuckles can climb walls while Amy can swing and walk on balance beams. When given the choice I often favoured Amy for her mid-air triple-jump or Tails for his ranged combat utility. Another central mechanic is the Enerbeam, a laser grapple that can throw robots around or let you swing or ride rails. When playing in 2P co-op, one player uses the TV while the other has their own screen on the Gamepad, which I'm always a fan of. Up to four players can compete or collaborate in the specific multiplayer modes which seem kinda fun if you have willing participants.

The structure of the story mode has you returning to two hub zones between levels, where you can explore and do a scarce few NPC quests. The characters' slow movement speed works well for the levels but less so for these open zones. Here you can also spend scrap found in levels to rebuild landmarks, a nice but underused mechanic. In levels there's robot fights which feel a bit clumsy and there's sure a lot of them, and the occasional mediocre vehicle section. But this is a 3D Sonic game so there's also a lot of autorunning sections: the pace in these is so fast that you can barely react and the framerate absolutely tanks, but there's little penalty for mistakes and they're decent as flashy little setpieces with changing camera angles and such.

I have to talk about the collectibles and currencies in this game. There's scrap from beating robots and opening chests, which you use for buildings but also passive upgrades to your characters. Accumulating crowns unlocks new tiers of these upgrades. But there's also rings because this is a Sonic game. These act as a health system but you get tons of them so you rarely go beneath your cap. Why is there a cap? Well you only lose a few when you get hit. You can extend your cap by making progress in Shattered Crystal on 3DS and connecting your systems, which is very dumb and funny. But even at your cap you want to collect them because your cumulative total unlocks concept art and stuff. Also, doing sidequests unlocks selectable passive buffs which are mostly useless. The whole customisation and upgrading thing frankly needed some work, but it's a neat idea.

That's Rise of Lyric in a nutshell really. Sonic Boom is a breath of fresh air for the Sonic franchise, and the idea of this game as a change of pace for Sonic gameplay has potential. But as so often has been the case, Sega shoots themselves in the foot, development goes through hell, the games suffer as a result, and then no one is happy. I want to get across that I find the game inoffensive and a decent example of its genre, not totally deserving of the scorn it gets, but it could easily have been so much better and that is obvious for anyone to see. Oh well, maybe next time Sega launches a Western-focused multimedia Sonic spinoff it can get a tie-in game that gets the time and attention it deserves... you know, the next one after Prime which didn't even get a game at all!

[crusherthedoctor]

Hey Crush, Nick here again. Does that Freedom Fighter Defender Anon even realise that those characters weren't even relevant to a real degree outside of America? In the UK at the least, we got reruns of SatAM...and as far as I'm aware, that's about it. Why in the hell should any non US fan care about characters from some 90's cartoon that had little to do with the games they're supposedly based of...and whom very easily might never have watched or read anything they're even in?

Like a lot of people on the internet (mostly Twitter... like usual), SatAM/Archie fans have an unfortunate tendency to think the whole world is America. So I'm curious of how they'd react to Viridonia, since everyone there has a British accent, including the green horsie herself. :P

Back in primary school, when I first learned about Sonic courtesy of classmates talking about it, they'd discuss other characters all the time like Knuckles, Tails, Amy, "Robontik" (they all said it like that for some reason lmao), Shadow, Rouge, and I think Gamma and Metal Sonic were mentioned a couple of times as well. None of them said anything about Sally, or any of the other Freedom Fighters for that matter. So when I finally saw them for the first time via Mega Collection's comic section, I was extremely confused as to who they were and why no one said anything about them previously.

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

King Dedede and the Tinkateers

In the grasslands of Paldea, the heroes of Dreamland were having themselves a picnic, when suddenly, from the horizon...

Bandana Dee: "Your highness, look, a swarm of Pawniard is coming our way!"

Sure enough, it was an armada of Pawniards, with some Bisharp leading the charge, clearly believing the picnicing visitors to be easy prey.

Meta Knight, sword unsheathed: "Hmmph, I have been in the need of  a good battle for a while."

King Dedede: "Yeah, this should help us kill time before the food is done. Kirby, don't eat everything while were away!

Kirby: "I make no promises!"

But before our heroes could charge into battle, the Pawniards and Bisharp suddenly stopped, some shaking in fear as they stared at a hilltop. curious, our heroes looked there as well.

An army of pink sprites, all of varying sizes, all wielding hammers made of scrap metal, with the larger ones utterly dwarfed by their own weapons. And on their faces, a cute pink smile. The smile of a murderous maniac.

The Tinka line. Tinkatinks, Tinkatuffs and Tinkatons.

They charged at the Pawniards, several holding onto each other in fear of the approaching mass of pink and steel.

For the sake of everyone reading this, the battle shall not be described. Just know that our heroes were disturbed by the sight.

Bandana Dee: "That was... horrifying."

Meta Knight: "Nature is cruel and unforgiving. But I agree that that was a bit much."

King Dedede: "Eh, they don't scare me none. Plus those hammers just look plain shoddy. They wanna see a real hammer, they gotta come look at this bad boy."

He pulled out his own hammer, wooden and beautiful, and catching the eye of a particular Tinkaton. She belted out a battle cry, charging with her hammer raised, her brethren following behind.

Bandana Dee: "They're coming for us, sir."

King Dedede: "I can see that, Dee."

Dedede leisurely raised his hammer, watching the Tinkaton approach. Activating the jet propulsion mode of his hammer, he held steady, until the Tinkaton finally reached him, and their weapons clashed.

It was over before it even began, Dedede's overpowering the cobbled together weapon, launching the thing flying into the sky.

The other Tinka's watched this event, before wisely raising their hands in surrender and backing away. Dedede's opponent stared at her hammer, already somewhere in the stratosphere.

King Dedede: "Now that's what a real hammer looks like. And don't ya forget it."

The Tinkaton, eyes sparkling in utter awe, fell to her knees, and began to bow to the penguin? king.

Meta Knight: "Hmm, I believe this one wants to learn from you."

Bandana Dee: "But wouldn't it be dangerous to the local ecology to teach a wild creature how to build a weapon of mass destruction like that?"

King Dedede: "I see no problem. Alright little lady. You're hired!"

The Tinkaton had tears in her eyes, before hopping into the air in joy... and quickly dodging when her hammer crashed down to earth.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, the blue blur shuddered.

Tails: What's wrong, Sonic?

Sonic: I dunno. I feel like a small, pink thing with a giant hammer is gonna be a problem for me in the future. And that it isn't Amy.

[shadow-coolness]

If Garfield could make it into NALB when the Nick show hasnt even been revealed yet then maybe just maybe

Now here me out, Not only could his moveset include the spindash,enderbeam and homing attack, they could also give him alternate costumes like:

Modern Sonic

Metal Sonic

Scourge

Stealth the Hedgehog

Zonic

And he has plenty potential for special interactions:

(To Batman Who Laughs): You sound…familiar.

(To Garnet): Lets see Tall,red,likes to punch. Is your name Knucklina?

(To Harley): Its like if Sticks and Amy fused.

(To Jake): Shapeshifting dog…eh not the weirdest thing i’ve seen.

(To Shaggy): Wait you got your powers from a magic rock? Thats crazy.

(To Bugs): I’ve meet a lot of rabbits and none of them ate carrots as much as you.

(To Black Adam): Getting some Deja Vu here.

(To Iron Giant): I should warn you, Im very good at fighting robots.

Scourge Lines

(To Joker): You look like you had a bad day.

(To Harley); Feeling real uneasy here.

(To Black Adam): You? A King? You gotta be joking.

(To Superman): You remind me of someone i hate.

(To Finn): Whats with all the Blue Boys in this place?

(To Sonic): Lets settle this Blue!

And of course his taunts could be the finger wag,him looking at his wrist like he has a watch,the thumbs up pose and him laying down.

[carrionmeat]

Periphery (shadow&rouge)

ao3 link

summary:

Shadow pushes his friends away and resents them for not reaching out.

word count: 1,566

tags: Shadow the Hedgehog & Rouge the Bat, Identity issues, character study, trust issues, mental health struggles, timed writing

Shadow didn’t know why he was like this.

He didn’t have the typical awareness of his own personality, one that typically accompanied some sort of archetype as you’d see on a television show. Some people intuitively knew ‘who they were’. Like knowing you liked soccer and team sports, or knowing that you were an artist because you enjoyed drawing. He saw this trope often. After all, it was easy to identify with predisposed boxes. 

He didn’t have that, though. He didn’t have a box that he fit in. And he didn’t quite understand if he was born into the role of an outsider, or if he was made to fit it. 

Amy was a baker because she liked baking, or that Sonic was a hero because he saved people. Fitting those he saw with these roles only really served to disarm him further.

What was he? He carried out the orders that Gun entrusted him with. Did that make him a grunt? The title was so impersonal. 

Shadow found the idea of being a grunt, just a grunt, only a grunt to be disappointing. It made his chest swell with not rage, but a forthright agitation. This was soothed at his real title: The Ultimate Lifeform.

But he was the Ultimate Lifeform because…? 

Because what? 

He could run fast. So could Sonic, and much better than he could. He was strong– Knuckles was stronger physically. He could regenerate… but didn’t he get that capability from the Black Arms? He was supposed to save people. Look how that turned out. 

(Besides, that was another thing Sonic was much better at.) 

Impossible by definition only, he was impersonal with himself. Every accomplishment that he had, or edge that he had over another, was easily explained away by a different shortcoming. The only thing he was good at, the only thing he really excelled in, was carrying out orders with complete efficiency. 

… But then, even OMEGA had him beat. Shadow wasn’t a robot. As much as he related to his team members, more than any other mobian, they just weren’t the same. Sometimes when he watched Metal Sonic interact with Sage, Eggman, and even Belle, he was hit with the most self-assured wave that the imposter robot had more emotional depth than Shadow could ever possess. 

How pathetic was that? 

He was beat by a robot? 

It’s not like he could share his doubts with anyone. The only scrap of face that he held onto was exactly that– saving face. So he stole away to the corners or walls to lean on during Sonic’s get-togethers. Watching the dynamics of cliques like Team Sonic interact, or the care that Team Chaotix had for each other only served to rot the hole in his soul. 

The soul. What a concept.

He was made in a lab. Did he even deserve one? 

Shadow didn’t think anyone ever noticed when he slipped out through a window or brazenly walked through the front doors to leave. If they did– well, no one ever pursued. Or asked. Waving it away, shooing wayward concern with ‘That’s just how he is’. 

At the back of his head, he knew he was putting his hands in the dirt of a graveyard and digging his own grave. Bits of filth condensed under his nails. He was the only one making this persona for himself, creating this facade. He never told anyone goodbye. He never greeted anyone with a smile or engaged in small talk. But wasn’t it also up to them? To share concern for a friend, or even acquaintance, and make that gap? 

Not to say some of them didn’t. Sonic would shoot him a “you alright?”, but if he so easily accepted a head nod, did he really care? If Sonic was so easily assured, wasn’t it just a courtesy? 

None of them wanted to hear about how Shadow really felt. Besides, Shadow wasn’t quite sure himself. He wouldn’t be able to give them a proper answer. 

So on a night like this Saturday night, he found himself mindlessly pacing the concrete sidewalks of Tails’ neighborhood. Sonic’s get-togethers were always at the fox’s house. The blue bum refused to get his own abode, something Shadow couldn’t begin to understand. 

“Hey handsome,” And Shadow was surprised that he heard Rouge’s voice before the clicking of her heels against the pavement. “Out here moping around? Typical.” 

“I’m not moping.” He shot back, and in his peripheral watched as she met his stride. Although another quip sat at the front of his teeth, Shadow pursed his lips instead. He couldn’t think of the last time he had seen her so casual. 

“Well I just so happened to be in town,” Her voice was low, sultry. She crossed her arms under her chest as they walked. “Sonic said you left in quite the harrumph.” 

His eyes wandered. Not avoiding the topic, he said to himself, just thinking. “I had somewhere to be.” 

“Oh, walking around in his neighborhood until the A.M.?” 

“... I was just about to leave.” 

“Don’t give me that,” Rouge turned her head, and he felt teal-green eyes lock onto his side profile. “What’s going on in your head, Shadsy?” 

Shadow paused. The cork to his shaken champagne bottle was threatening to pop, to allow himself to pour out a frothing well of insecurities and angst, but he couldn’t. His lips were tight and his muzzle had an uncomfortable twitch. Rouge’s presence– the warmth of her next to him on what was an already sticky and humid night, the strong waft of her expensive perfume and makeup– it was already embracing a small part of him that needed attention. But it wasn’t enough to break down the walls he’d built up so high around himself. 

It wasn’t enough to lower his guard. It never was.

“Nothing,” And the word unfurled from his tongue as a sharp thorn, “I was just thinking about the work I need to catch up on this week.” 

“What work?” Her voice was indignant at first, her wings jerking as if to batter the air– before she regained her composure. He was left out of an important cue here, obviously enough. “Shadow, you’ve been given the month off.” 

“What?” His head turned. He let the visible duress of confusion scrunch his brows, and steel his glare. “Elaborate.” 

She rolled her eyes at him. The gall. “Not because of anything in particular, prince. I just happened to have a little leverage on the commander.” 

“Why?” 

“You needed the time,” Rouge’s hackles didn’t raise, but it sure felt like it. “Honey, you tend to work yourself to death’s door. I don’t know if you’ve noticed.” 

“I didn’t want time off,” Although her words were a reassurement, his heart still quickened in his chest. When he wasn’t working, when he wasn’t following or succeeding, he wasn’t anything. “I like working.” 

“No one likes working,” Rouge raised her brow at him and emphasized the point with a jab of her index finger. They stopped walking. Stopped under a yellowing streetlight. Accompanied, but still alone in the night. “And that’s a fact.” 

“Well, I do,” He bore a little too much teeth in the remark, but he didn’t know how else to show that he was upset. Shadow didn’t know how to show anything unless it was through clenched teeth. “And I don’t need you meddling with my business.” 

She paused. Looked him up, and down, and back up again. Unamused, unimpressed. “Just because I take a little vacation doesn’t mean I’m out of your life, sugar cube. Your business will always be my business. Besides, I’m back and better than ever. So get used to it.” 

Her words were too straightforward for him to dismiss them as dishonest, as much as he wished that he could. She was being far too blunt for him to believe anything else. Manipulation was a tactic best served with honey, and this wasn’t coated in the slightest. 

Maybe it was a small mercy that she didn’t mess with him too much. The brief bafflement, the way she caught him off guard was plain with his mouth opening and closing. Not quite finding the right words. So it was a relief when she slung her arm around his shoulders, pulling him into her. 

The smell of expensive perfume, and makeup, and the uncomfortable heat in the already-humid weather. 

“You don’t need to say anything, Shadsy. Everyone has rough nights. Even me, and I’m basically perfect.”

That wasn’t true and he knew it, but he didn’t say anything to discredit her claim. He let his lips close, to gnaw on the inside of his cheek while they walked in a direction that seemed more like to her apartment.

“We can talk about it in the morning.”

Shadow didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know why he was made, or what purpose he could serve besides being useful to someone else. He knew that people didn’t really care about him– why would anyone care about a tool besides how sharp they were? And Shadow certainly wasn’t very grateful for those that he knew in his life, or even the half-hearted bonds he shared with acquaintances and coworkers.

But Rouge saw him a little better than he thought anyone else could. And that was starting to chip at the weight on his shoulders. 

[fstbmp-a]

"Robo wants an Oreo."

[idwsonicmegareview]

For Dr. Eggman's next trick, zombie robots! – Volume 4: Infection (#13-16)

Sonic and friends likely believed they had finally neutralized every threat to their world. Neo Metal Sonic was defeated in the Battle for Angel Island and de-weaponized, and with Dr. Eggman suffering from amnesia (to everyone else's benefit) there would be nobody to restore Metal to his homicidal potential.

What they didn't know is that an evil platypus, Dr. Starline, with Metal's help, managed to restore Mr. Tinker to his evil genius self! Eggman is back and he's looking to unleash his greatest weapon to date.

Story

A mysterious letter appears on Tails' desk proclaiming that the world's greatest evil doctor is back! He runs to get Sonic, who doesn't want to believe the worst, or rather doesn't want to believe that Eggman tricked him with this amnesia business. The duo rush to Windmill Village, where they left to doctor in peace.

When they arrive, they see the town is being attacked by none other than Rough and Tumble, the bafoons Sonic and Knuckles had taken out back in volume 1.

They easily take down the mooks but before they can question them, a wormhole opens up right beneath the skunks and they escape. The village elder informs Sonic and Tails that Rough and Tumble were the ones to kidnap Mr. Tinker, much to Sonic's relief.

Next, Sonic and Silver chase a lead and investigate an old Eggman base in the snowy mountains. There, they encounter Starline and Metal Sonic. The combination of Sonic's speed and Silver's psychokinesis make short work of the two, but Starline gets the last laugh. He gives Silver what he thinks is the combination to a vault inside the base, but it's really the detonator code for explosives. Sonic rushes to save Silver and gets caught in the same blast.

Dr. Eggman reacts in a rage, strangling Dr. Starline for having the audacity to try and kill his lifelong adversary in the "wrong way." Fortunate for Starline, Sonic and Silver survived the blast but Silver is still injured.

Finally, Sonic and Amy infiltrate another abandoned Eggman base to try and hack into the Eggnet and see what the doctor is planning. While they are able to get schematics to a new airship that resembles the face of the Space Colony ARK but with some mention of "payload distribution", they're unfortunately interrupted by Rough and Tumble armed with a tank!

The pair quickly outfox the skunks, leading them to use the backpack gadgets Eggman gave them, which fully drench them in Metal Virus, instantly turning them into zombie robots!

Sonic and Amy manage to drop the pair into a mineshaft where they won't be able to harm anyone else, but unfortunately Sonic is infected with the Metal Virus. He runs to Tails, who analyzes the infection. It appears at first that Sonic's speed put the infection into remission on his way to Tails, but we soon see that it returns after a period of rest.

Meanwhile, we see Eggman's process of developing the virus, mass producing it, and preparing to drop the metal goop onto the town that took him in when he had amnesia. No good deed goes unpunished, after all.

The zombie robots, or Zombots, spread out across the land to spread the virus and we see one infected flicky bird make its way to a large city...

Presentation

Writing

There are so many little gems of comedy in this volume. Ian Flynn is a master of writing these characters and he finds fun ways of having them interact like friends, coworkers, or even enemies.

I felt like the repeated introduction of the term Zombots was unnecessary but I did appreciate wrapping it into a joke at one point where Tails rolls his eyes at Sonic's coining this term. On the one hand, it's lamp shading how lame this really is, on the other it comes across like how real boys roast each other as friends.

The Rough and Tumble rhyming joke makes multiple appearances in this one. Sonic and Tails get in on it just to irritate them and then later the skunks even bicker with each other for using a slant rhyme. They have a professional reputation to uphold, of course.

World Building

These issues also had the job of explaining the Metal Virus to readers so that they will understand the stakes going forward. Considering this will be the story arc for the next several volumes, it's important to have this stuff laid out upfront.

What we know so far is

Full saturation with the Metal Virus liquid instantly transforms plants and animals into machines

Contact spreads the virus

Repeated exposure speeds up infection

The zombots show aggression and move to spread infection without being told to do so

We also get some good bits here showing Eggman's mindset at the villain. He doesn't just want to kill Sonic, he wants to completely beat him. He tells Starline that he could easily carpet bomb him any day, but he has to prove something by defeating Sonic by outsmarting him. This actually does a lot to explain Eggman's repeated failures in the past by showing that Sonic has been outmaneuvering him, not outsmarting him necessarily.

There's also some more nods to the war from Sonic Forces. Sonic and Amy infiltrate an old mine Eggman was operating during the war which was a major battle for the Resistance. Amy has to fill Sonic in on what happened here because he was still imprisoned on the Death Egg when this battle took place. This is a lot more connective tissue than we usually get between Sonic stories and it shows that there are lingering effects on Sonic's world from this war, even if it's just an abandoned mine in this case.

Characters

Our established characters get a lot of material here, of course, but we do see reappearances from nearly all of our new characters as well. Most of them need the love to cement them as either new members of Sonic's crew or to give the illusion of population in Sonic's world.

Tangle makes a brief but comedic appearance in issue 16, which reminds the audience how endearing and charismatic she is, but ultimately comes across as an excuse to advertise her spin-off comic. While Whisper isn't mentioned or seen in this volume, she's implied through the allusion to the Tangle and Whisper comic.

Rough and Tumble make appearances in two out of four issues this time around and it's starting to feel like they're the only banditos in the whole world, in which case maybe they should be thrown in jail and kept there to eliminate crime on Sonic's world.

We get a lot more of Dr. Starline in this and we're starting to see that he's actually not a villain in his own right, he's just an Eggman fanboy. However, it's interesting to see the cracks setting in when it comes to his worship of the good doctor. Starline, understandably, is shocked at Eggman's reckless lack of testing the Metal Virus before unleashing it on the world. After five brief tests, he's ready to dump the goo all over the world and we have no idea how it might turn out!

While I do think it's a total Eggman move for him to attack Windmill Village first since they are the ones who took him in after the war, it's another scene that makes Sonic's world feel really small. Like this is the only village in the world for him to attack. Hopefully with some more time and pages the IDW crew will be able to expand the setting further.

The Verdict

Going into "Infection", I was worried it'd be all setup and no payoff because the Metal Virus arc is so long and has a lot of moving pieces. While there is a lot of setup in these four issues, there was also plenty of action, character writing, and colorful pages for kids to enjoy. I didn't feel like we were spinning the wheels; the story has forward momentum even coming off the heels of the Battle for Angel Island. Maybe having the 2019 Annual sandwiched between gave us the only sigh or relief the story needed.

Next time, we'll be reading the Tangle and Whisper miniseries, which takes place at the same time as what we just read. I'm sorry this part came out so far behind schedule but you know how life comes at you fast sometimes!

Check back on Tuesday, May 28 for Tangle and Whisper!

[egg-emperor]

Didn't Eggy leave Metal Sonic, his magnum opus, to rot on little planet for over a year and then rip out his voicebox and essentially lobotomize him for getting too uppity in Heroes?

Yup, world's best most wholesome sweet and caring dad over here. 👍 Honestly Eggman's dynamic with seeing his creations will always be destined to be fucked up no matter what because he doesn't make them because he's lonely and wants to create company. Evident by how he's never implied to feel uncomfortable with living alone far away from all other life and in any circumstances where he is around others like his live lackeys and robot creations, he has a short patience and temper with them all like he finds his own superior self too good for them. Plus he wasn't even known to have any close personal assistant robots with programmed personality like Orbot and Cubot. He's always come across as comfortable being alone.

Then there's the fact that still, none of his creations have never actually been created with the main purpose of being like family to him. They're all created to serve and protect and slave away and do labor for him, not to hang out and have fun family days out with (though if he would they'd be in his own twisted evil ways). That doesn't sound like a wholesome traditional family dynamic when his "kids" are servants that are supposed to only follow his every command, have no freedom to say or do anything he doesn't order for them to do, and have to slave away or even kill and die for him (which even Sage does) And it doesn't matter if they're willing or not, they're required to.

Even when it's a situation of him ending up unintentionally seeing them as being more like family to him like Sage, the real reasons why he praises her are still for the very reasons he actually created her, because she's loyal and efficient in serving and protecting him, his own words. He just realizes he can take extra pride in her for how she's very life-like by saying he's created a superior form of life to the easy unimpressive traditional way and can take pride in her for reflecting his genius as her creator. It's shallow, it's not full of deep emotion and care, that's only Sage's side but even she didn't start like that with Eggman's programming and it was thanks to Sonic and friends. Which I think is more interesting, that the AI was capable of genuine selfless love and care than the real human being.

The basis of his "love" for Sage is unsettling and fucked up as it is regardless of how he ends up treating her because this is the basis of it, intended and confirmed by Ian Flynn himself. He specifically values her for doing what she's told, for benefiting him, for being able to take credit and pride in being her creator. And he's definitely going to bring her back as evil red Sage over the love developed blue Sage with influence from his arch nemesis instead of letting that taint his genius creation. And then there's the ways he's treated his creations and other lackeys for years and years prior, with themes and plot lines of abuse being heavily recurring with him.

Metal has also gotten some of the worst of is one of the earliest and recurring examples. He's been left alone to rot after being defeated in CD and only brought back again when Eggman found use in him, was punished by being abandoned again and then having his voice removed after his betrayed, and was kicked and left for weeks in the harsh weather after failing in Mania Adventures and still had his damage neglected when Eggman took him back in only thanks to Amy. And many of his other creations like the E Series, SA-55, and Orbot and Cubot, and more have gotten more of this awful treatment too but have no freedom or escape under his rule.

I want him to have a world's worst dad mug and shirt lol he's awful 💜

[scorpiolight-madd]

Ok I’ve had some ideas for a third Storybook Collection game, this one based on fairytales. So far the two I’m absolutely set in stone on are:

1. Metal Sonic as Pinocchio. He’s got no strings to hold him down, but he’s still bound by the wood he’s made of, and wishes to be a real boy. However, Gepetto (Eggman) found a way to keep him from lying: don’t let him speak. He’s absolutely still going to be a villain, but it’d be interesting to see if he breaks away from his creator if he gets his wish.

2. Shadow as the Gingerbread Man. Run run run as fast as you can, no one in fairytale land has been able to catch him. At least, until Sonic shows up.

Some other ones I’ve been thinking of but aren’t set in stone:

Tails as Reynard the Fox

Blaze as Puss in Boots (Mostly because there’s only two cats and Big doesn’t really fit the bill)

Amy as Rose Red (though I don’t know who Snow White would be. Maybe Silver?) Either that or Sleeping Beauty, or Beauty and the Beast (mostly because they all have rose motifs)

The Babylon Rogues as Robin Hood and his Merry Men (Not too sure about this one, maybe Rouge instead? But none of them steal from the rich and give to the poor, these guys all just steal.)

Cream as Little Red Riding Hood

Knuckles as Jack and the Beanstalk (??? There aren’t a lot of fairytales that fit him, honestly)

Maria as the Little Matchstick Girl (because I love suffering.)

Anyways, if anyone else has any ideas, feel free to let me know! I’d love to hear any

[sonic-hot-takes]

Remember when everyone wanted to roast Pontac and Graff over a fire like a marshmallow? That’s how a lot of people treat Ian, except Ian is an actual tried and true fan of the series

I’ve critiqued Ian’s stuff on here before; which, to be fair, is kind of the point of this blog, I’m not sonic-lukewarm-takes and it wouldn’t be revolutionary for me to say “uh, actually Ian’s the best writer the series has ever had,” but it’s absolutely true. Ian is the best writer the series has ever had. Maekawa is up there, but Ian’s dialogue has consistently been much snappier and charming (though this may also be a localization issue).

I don’t understand how people can hear these random Bumblekast clips and claim that Ian just “doesn’t get” the characters or enforces the mandates himself or blah blah blah. If you took one look at Ian’s work with Archie, especially post reboot, you’d know right away how wrong that is. Freedom Fighters are there, characters like Shadow are well written, and honestly anything that could be perceived as “““woke””” is more subtext than anything overt (I’m honestly kind of surprised the intent was to make Sally and Nicole a couple post reboot since outside of a couple scenes in Spark of Life I struggled reading it that way).

As always, if fingers must be pointed at anyone it should be at Sega themselves. Even without memorizing all the stated mandates to heart, anyone who’s read both comics can tell that they clearly have IDW on a much tighter leash than Archie. Which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing since it’s meant to keep the series more accessible, but none of those creative changes are Ian’s fault. If Ian wanted to axe the Freedom Fighters so badly, he would’ve done it when he had the chance in the Archie reboot. Instead he not only kept them around, but also gave them new designs to help their outdated 90s Disney Channel lookin asses fit better into the Modern Sonic style that they were legally forced to go all in on. You really think that Sega advocated for a bunch of characters that had been made by some random foreign artists over two decades prior and never appeared in any of the mainline games?

(Spinball doesn’t count, fuck you)

This pattern continues. Sega wants to keep IDW accessible to new fans, so callbacks to previous games or older Sonic media are off the table. This is also why the worldbuilding is so bad in IDW, because they want to keep everything nondescript to avoid confusion. Sega is more concerned with branding than narrative, so Shadow is stripped of his nuance and just made into the edgy competitive Vegeta ass rival because that’s what his design and character archetype would entail (the general tone and aesthetics of his solo game don’t help). Same with Amy, who has slowly degraded from hyper fangirl to just girl. So on and so forth.

And it’s really sad to see Ian take so much crap for this shit, since you know he’d change it at the drop of a hat if he wanted to. Once again, post reboot Archie is proof of that. As a licensed writer, one of Ian’s biggest strengths is revitalizing and recontextualizing old characters and concepts in a new way. Literally one of the first things he did in Archie Sonic was put in Bark and Bean with the narrative role and personalities we know them for today. He took a random side character from SatAM that most people only barely remembered and turned her into a legitimately interesting antivillain, simultaneously filling a void left behind by the lawsuits. You know he’d kill to keep doing that kind of thing.

Once again, Ian’s not above critique. I took my big dump on Frontiers’ story when the game came out, and I’ll probably end up doing it some more if I can find it within myself to get any further in the DLC. Not all of his comics have been bangers, like some of his early early Archie stuff, some of the Metal Virus arc, and honestly quite a bit of the Mega Man comic, but overall his writing is overwhelmingly good. But some of y’all need to stop really need to stop crucifying him just because he says something like “maybe we should make Blaze a more accessible character” on his podcast

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[marionedde]

watching sonic 2 rn and here are my thoughts in real time

not robotnik making a replication of his boyfriend

holy shit knuckles just wrecked the entire wall???????

What is his problem

ok sonic unstoppable didnt really work

GO TAILS GO HIT HIM WITH A CAR

why is the 8 year old better at driving than sonic

CLIFFORD THE BIG RED RAGE MONSTER HELP ME

im so confused where did these anthropomorphic freaks come from

where did he get the tractor

ok and stone replicating his face perfectly in coffee is....iteresting

aww he's so happy to see him

robotnik is so fucking lame

nvm he just reset his own bones he's metal asf

btw did i mention ive never seen the first one

ok ok so hes an alien

that makes sense

i find it so funny how the owls and echidnas were just like " fuck you i want to guard it"

ok the heart coffee??????

why are all the villains so unserious and then the anti-heros are serious as hell

tom is such a malewife

and a dad

im so confused

AUTISTIC TAILS AUTISTIC TAILS

chaos emerald appearance ok ok ok

none of the characters are capable of being functional and i am here for it

great job fighting in a giant ancient temple way to go guys

kunckles questioning his morals over here

SNOWBOARD FASTER

tom is so girlfail

ok tom wtf

GO TOM

GUN. GUN. FUCK OFF. KYS. DIE.

ok part 2 in a bit

omg i love rachel

GET HIS ASS RACHEL

woah wait what the fuck

oh ok giant green laser that's cool

SONIC WAAHHHHHH

RBOTNIK MAID DRESS?????????

how do this movie go from completely unserious to life or death in minutes

HE SAID IT

HE SAID THE THING

SONIC NO

aww crab

ok um task failed successfully ig

they really should have played pumpkin hill during this segment

none of the characters in this are neurotypical

TH KNUCKLES SCENE ON THE BEACH IM CRTING

ok that’s a little gay robotnik

WHY ID THE 8 YO DRIVING AGAIN

HOLY SHIT HE CAN FLY OK

I know eggman is evil and shit but thumbs up to him for hating GUN

Stone pulled through with the manual hell yeah

Brothers in arms

Sonic what

Oh ok

the primary color blurs are making me grin like a little kid

THEIR KID

IM SCREAMING

WIFE?!

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG IS A BI-

no no don’t take him to the bridge

THE TAILS MILTIPLICATION AGAIN YEAG

FUCK

YES

FUCK YES

FUCK YOU EGGMAN

YOU LITTLE BITCH

MOM GRAB

GO GET YOUR SON

THE EMERALDS

not me crying rn

HOLY SHIT!????

what is his problem with hedgehogs

WTFFFF

SONIC

OMFG

ONE HAND HOLY DUCK

he is not dead there’s no way

Sonic what

biggest gag of the whole universe

HES MATURED SO MUCH M

OUR KID?????

knuckles what the hell are you gonna do with that

OK LETS GO

BASEBALL YES

God their such freaks

DAD

DAD

IM CRYING

THEYRE HORRIBLE OMG

THE CREDITS YES

this deserves an Oscar or whatever the movie on is holy shit

what’s with kid cudi and video game songs

oh he is not dead

SHADOW?!?!??!

THE WAY I GASPED HOLY FUCK

I have so many emotions and I can’t process them all

a+ movie ten out of ten would recommend

WHERE TF IS AMY. I WANNA SEE MY GIRL.

[fstbmp-a]

And, just like that, she did a little hop in place with a clap of metallic hands. All that professional and barely-contained anger gone in an instant; replaced with what one'd expect from a copy of the pink hedgehog.

"Thank you!"

Rose is skipping away at that. It really is on a dime with her...

"Then you can have them as long as I see that improvement reflected. Remember, they're a privilege, not a right."

He's going to make sure that the revised quotas at least compensates for the miniscule increase in the monthly budget a few times over.