#rassilontdavros

[thankskenpenders]

So there's apparently a tease for an upcoming IDW Sonic crossover in the letters page of issue 70 (I say "apparently" because I haven't actually read it yet. Any thoughts on what you think it's going to be and/or what you're hoping for it to be?

The popular guess seems to be Godzilla, due to the wording on the letters page ("they're a BIG threat to the Blue Blur and his friends!"), the fact that Sonic already fights kaiju so it'd be a fitting mashup, and the fact that Godzilla does comic crossovers regularly. IDW and Boom are literally doing a second Godzilla vs. Power Rangers crossover right now. And that'd definitely be fun. I'm not the most hardcore Godzilla fan, so this wouldn't blow me away or anything, but I'd be down for it.

The other popular guess seems to be TMNT, which would be an incredibly easy fit for Sonic. That's also another property that does a lot of comic crossovers, and one that IDW currently has the rights for. I'd definitely enjoy that a lot.

Honestly, there's a lot of stuff that would be fun to see in a crossover with Sonic, but I'm just stuck trying to think of things that already get a ton of crossovers to try and keep it realistic. Ghostbusters? Eh, not that great of a mashup. Street Fighter? Could be fun, but it's probably not that. Sonic vs. Predator? No way lmao. I still think a Sonic/Transformers crossover would rule, but with IDW having lost the license last year I'm not sure I'd count on that anytime soon. Really though the main crossover I always wanted was Sonic and Mega Man, and Archie already did that. Twice!

[thankskenpenders]

Any thoughts on what we've seen of Sonadow Generations so far?

Looks like a lot of fun. I'm shocked that they're willing to lean so hard into the Black Arms stuff. Just a couple years ago I would've assumed they wanted to retcon it. But I'm trying not to let myself get too hyped because there's a very real chance it's just like a two hour bonus campaign stapled onto a Generations rerelease, and not the full-blown New Shadow Game a lot of fans are making it out to be

[thankskenpenders]

Do you think the Scourge comic would have seen the light of day without the artist-following-N*zis controversy, or do you think Ken's reputation alone would have done it in anyway?

They were doomed the second they said "in association with Ken Penders." Straight up. The other stuff is obviously bad and only made the situation worse, and it's entirely possible that people would have dug it up regardless, even if they were just making an unlicensed fan comic. But any association at all with Penders meant that people were on the offensive from the moment the announcement was posted

(Don't take this as any kind of statement on Cancel Culture or whatever. Yeah, folks were definitely more eager to dig up dirt to confirm their suspicions, but it's still good to know who you're supporting and avoid giving money to dipshit right wingers.)

The thing is, when the licensing agreements were first announced, there were definitely a lot of people half-joking about being able to "rescue" their favorite characters from Penders. I'm pretty sure I got some messages jokingly suggesting I license some characters to include in SLARPG or to make a game about them or whatever at the time. But I wonder if it's actually possible to do that without the fandom being livid. If trying harder to distance yourself from Penders would help mitigate that at all, or if you're doomed the second you agree to pay the guy royalties. There's only so much you can do when you're in a licensing agreement with him, after all. It's not like you can announce "yeah we got these characters back from that SHITHEAD Penders (who will be getting royalties for this)" without looking unprofessional as hell. And you can't really hide it when I'm sure plastering "characters © Ken Penders" everywhere is part of the deal

I dunno. It probably is just a no-win scenario because the guy's name is so completely poisoned at this point. He said that there were some other interested parties vying for certain characters back when that was happening, even if Scourge is now off the table for the duration of the Speed Demon project contract (which he's still honoring). I wonder if any of those will fare any better, or if they all fell apart months ago after the Speed Demon team got eaten alive

[thankskenpenders]

Answering a couple of questions below a read more to hide major Sonic 2 spoilers. If you have not seen the movie, you have been warned

It's too early to really say, but the only one that comes to mind immediately is Sonic CD, and even that would pretty much just mean bringing in Amy and Metal and ditching all the time travel and Little Planet stuff. But if they're doing Shadow, the assumption is obviously that they're going to be loosely adapting Sonic Adventure 2, and that game is so stuffed full of plot and characters that it's hard to imagine them having room to do much else. Shadow has arguably the most complex backstory of any character in the series, especially if they choose to bring the revelations from his game into the mix.

(I don't see them touching on the Black Arms stuff at all in a film series where Chaos and Tikal were left out of the story of the Master Emerald to streamline it, but some have said that it would fit better in the film series lore, and that's not a bad point.)

Eh, I feel like they just wanted to use the iconic image of the seven Chaos Emeralds swirling around and turning him into Super Sonic. If Sega was gonna be strict about how the movies used the Master Emerald, they probably would've vetoed everything about the echidnas creating it from the seven Emeralds and Robotnik effectively going super off of it and Angel Island being completely absent and whatnot

It IS extremely funny. Like yeah, in context, I get it, Tom's his adopted dad. They literally have a scene where he takes Sonic out to the lake to go fishing and teach him an important life lesson that Tom learned from his dad. But also it's like. Yeah. Sonic the Hedgehog just called this human man his dad lmao

[thankskenpenders]

What's weird to me is that Salma was originally the daughter of Espio, a character whose shoes and gloves have pretty much always turned invisible when he did, including when Ken was writing him. Maybe not giving her clothes that turn invisible (which practically all invisibility-powered characters have) is part of some weird attempt to differentiate her from him?

Once you recognize the secret reason for Salma's exposure, you will feel ashamed of your words & deeds.

[thankskenpenders]

The ScreenRant guy is at it again.

He must be stopped.

[thankskenpenders]

Now that his oldest rival is dead and gone, do you think Sonic has a shot of taking over the video game industry again?

They had their differences at first, but by the end Mario was like a brother to Sonic. I think he’ll need some time to mourn

[thankskenpenders]

So in his Twitter spiel Ken says "with the example set by an autistic fan, I finally have a handle on writing a character fans can gravitate to and call their own" and I think this, just, PERFECTLY encapsulates a lot of the problems with his approach to writing about social issues? Like, if you know one autistic person... you know one autistic person. The "I know one autistic person, therefor I write good" logic is what really makes it clear to me that he has no goddamn idea what he's doing.

Yep!! How many horrible depictions of autism in fiction have been defended with claims that the writer knows an single autistic person in real life? And hell, how many of the loudest Autism Speaks-style bigots who want to "cure" autism use the fact that they have or know an autistic child as proof that they're experts?

[thankskenpenders]

What, for you, was the highlight of the Sonic Symphony?

It's hard to pick, but I'd say it might be when Ohtani's band was joined by the symphony for their rendition of Endless Possibilities. Crush 40 coming in at the end was also fantastic, but they're always crowd pleasers

This is a little thing, but I was also really happy to see Falk Au Yeong's name listed for one of the arrangements as a huge fan of his work on Sonic After the Sequel and Spark the Electric Jester. (He also mixed and mastered all of the music in Sonic Mania and did a couple tracks for Mania Plus, so he's no stranger to Sonic work, but I'm glad to see him get more of it.)

[thankskenpenders]

Do we have the designers of the new characters confirmed? I say this because looking at S____ (trying to be vague since I don't know if you can hide asks below the cut for spoiler reasons) I think Evan Stanley probably designed her. Her ears are shaped a lot like Gold the Tenrec's, who Evan also designed. Her hair and earrings also remind me a lot of Manic's, which might help a bit with plausible deniability. Not sure on K__.

I believe both designs were a collaboration between Evan and Mauro Fonseca. I'll leave the specifics to them - since the first issue isn't out until November it might be a bit early for them to publicly say more

[thankskenpenders]

So CBR’s article “Archie Sonic: 10 Issues That Completely Changed The Series” is, uh...

...something else

I am losing my goddamn mind at this

“Large, ongoing story arcs”? You mean Mecha Madness?? The saga that consisted of a single issue setting up a 48-page special, the special itself, and a followup issue about the fallout????

Sonic doesn’t kill Robotnik! Snively does! Sonic is just there fighting Robotnik when he gets blasted!

Where did you even hear that Max dies in this issue? He’s not even in it!! And he survives the entire series!!!

That is not even remotely how I would describe Return to Angel Island

Look, I get that freelance writers are all underpaid and they have strict deadlines and not every article’s gonna be a banger, but like. Is anyone even reading these? Is it worth it? Pay me to write a better article instead! Hell, I probably need the money more! My professional email is ponettplus@gmail.com. Former Intelligencer editor Brian Feldman can vouch for me. I’m waiting

[thankskenpenders]

So everyone's favorite former Sonic writer has just posted some... interesting art for TLSC. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this: status/1356520736467243008

Well that sure does appear to be an Echyd’nya autopsy huh

[thankskenpenders]

Ben Diskin is also the current voice of Megaman, right? Would having him be the voice of both Sonic and Megaman be weird? It sounds weird to me, but that might just be because I'm so used to all the Sonic/Megaman crossovers over the years that I kinda see the two series' casts as part of a whole, in a weird way. (Classic MM and Modern Sonic, specifically).

Oh god yeah I forgot he played Rock in 11. That would be so funny

[thankskenpenders]

In case nobody else told you, your New York Magazine piece is now listed as a source in Ken Penders' Wikipedia article!

oh my fucking god

[thankskenpenders]

I’m guessing you probably saw this question coming, but... Pink Diamond vs Locke. Who’s worse?

Pink Diamond was an extremely flawed person whose redemption arc we saw in reverse. I think it’s silly for people to act like the point was that she was “the real main villain of the show” due to the late-series reveals about her past, or anything that simple. She was a selfish person who became a hero over time, but still hurt people in her life. To try to argue that she’s either irredeemable or a saint is to miss the entire point of the show

Locke’s just a dick

[thankskenpenders]

I think I remember that sprite comic... was it about all the Sonic characters renting an apartment together after Sonic accidentally destroyed a bunch of people's homes?

The vague plot of my ancient Sonic sprite comic, The House of Sonic, was that all of the characters lived together, and their house got blown up when Sonic tricked Tails into upgrading their toaster using a Chaos Emerald. I also used the resulting radiation as an excuse to completely change the sprite style I was using in only the third strip. Then they had to find somewhere else to stay. I just made up the story as I went, and the entire premise was just me ripping off the dozens of other sprite comics that existed at the time about a bunch of characters living together--usually in Ness’s house. For a while I had them living in some ruins on Angel Island because I liked the backgrounds from Chaos Angel

It was never very popular, but I’m shocked by the number of people I’ve run into over the years who remember reading it as a kid, including multiple close friends

Then years later as an adult I gave my friends my Smack Jeeves login info and let them post random shit and it got really avant-garde