#same with starline and mimic

[frostbitten-winter]

favorite sonic character

Oooo thats a really good question!

Shadow is usually my favorite but sometimes when I consume a new media one of the characters from that will become my favorite

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: Here’s one from— a SuperChat from Joey the Sonic fan. “What’s every IDW Sonic villain’s favorite food?” Go ahead.[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I clipped some audio of technical difficulties here, hence the somewhat abrupt cut.]

IAN FLYNN: Favorite food… we’ve seen Eggman with his giant hoagies, so we’re gonna assume he likes a good sandwich. KYLE: I, uh, I also enjoy a good sandwich. [chuckles] IAN: Uh, Starline also appreciates a good sandwich because that’s what the Doctor eats, and therefore it’s clearly what he should enjoy immensely. KYLE: Yup, mhm. IAN: Um, Rough and Tumble like the absolute greasiest, cheapest, nastiest take-out pizza. Like, it’s cardboard with ketchup. It’s vile, no one should like it, they are the only people who eat it, and they swear that it’s a delicacy. KYLE: Uh-huh. [laughs] IAN: Um… let’s see. Surge really enjoyed chili dogs until she found out that was Sonic’s thing, and now she hates them. KYLE: Uh-huh, but she also still really likes them… just secretly. IAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so what— what is like, the antithesis of a chili dog? …Bacon cheeseburger? KYLE: [chuckles] I don’t know. It seems those are complimentary, I don’t know… IAN: [unintelligible] ‘Cause I don’t see— I don’t think she would even go so far as to, like, eat a salad. KYLE: Switch over to health food? IAN: Yeah. Maybe she— KYLE: Or maybe she just eats— IAN: Nah, maybe she embraces the chili dog because it’s going to be her chili dog from now on. That’s her thing. KYLE: I was just gonna say, maybe she just eats the hot dog with no bun, or anything. IAN: [laughs] Just grabs a fistful of chili, grabs the hot dog at the same time, shoves the whole thing into her face? KYLE: [interrupting] No, no, no chili. Just the dog. She doesn’t even cook it, she just rips it right out of the package and starts gnawing on it like a freakin’ dog. IAN: [laughing] KYLE: There you go! IAN: Ah, and Mimic enjoys shaved ice. KYLE: There you go, sure. Why not? [chuckles] Not much of a food, but… and I should know, I eat a lot of ice. I’m one of those perpetual ice chewers. IAN: Mhm, right there with ‘ya.

—— 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!

[beevean]

Just when I thought the comics couldn’t get any worse, the latest arc is going to have eggman team up with sonic, but here’s the kicker, sonic and eggman are working together to solve a mystery. Sonic is perfectly ok teaming up with the same guy that in the comics (ignoring the games) created a zombie virus, started a war, nearly kill all his friends constantly, and even ditched his puppet daughter. The matter of fact that people tout this comic understands the character are off their rockers.

big oof

I read Random's post, and you know what? Yeah. On one hand, it's absurd that Sonic teams up with Eggman at the drop of a hat - the last time was in #55, not too long ago! And it was for something as simple as exploring Starline's base! Say what you want about Sonic and Eggman teaming up in the games, but at least it was a matter of life and death every time! Where's the Sonic who has long learned that Eggman is full of shit and you can only count on his help when his skin is on the line? And ofc, way to undermine Eggman again, since he's clearly the "lesser evil" compared to Clutch and Mimic. Joy.

On the other, the fact that he'd rather accept Eggman's help than discuss things with Lanolin, who is in a position of authority (she's the referee from what I gathered) is extremely hilarious, and I don't blame him. If this was a well-written story, I'd almost think Lanolin being Mimic's perfect pawn because she's so unlikeable that she alienates everyone is a deliberate plot point, and it would be genius.

[randomthefox]

The latest issue was such a nothing burger because it’s just an idiot plot, the worst kind of idiot plot. It’s the one where the writers think it isn’t one. None of this would have happened if Surge had did what she should have done and ended up doing anyways in issue 67. Like… fuck. What even was the point? I thought this was about Surge and Kit wanting to learn about their past, something that didn’t even make any sense because Surge made it very clear in issue 50 that she didn’t care about learning who she was because her life must have sucked if she was kidnapped by Starline and no one went looking for her. Apparently Evan realized this too because that idea was completely dropped, except now Surge and Kit had literally no reason to work for Clutch. Clutch has no leverage over them.

Surge could have just killed Clutch at before the beginning. Sonic, Tails and Amy could have just called Jewel to clear things up at the beginning because literally no one would stop them if they made it clear that they thought something fishy was going on. No one could stop them. So many things in this arc happen for reasons that don’t make sense. Why does everything have to be so contrived?

Kind of pathetic how it was a double length 40 page issue and yet nothing fucking happened in it lol

Some dipshit Gary stu creators pet villain with no feats was defeated, after the comic desperately tried to pretend he was a credible threat that could stand toe to toe with the main cast for so long that it stopped being funny and started being awkward. Whooptie do? Nobody gave a shit about Clutch anyway and it was really embarrassing that the comic wanted us to take him seriously. This is Sonic the Hedgehog. Eggman is the villain who actually matters, and he barely fucking exists in this comic. Clutch being "defeated" doesn't matter because Clutch is a nobody.

Restoration HQ was destroyed? Tell me what plot significance Restoration HQ had to the comic. Tell me what plot significance the RESTORATION AS AN ORGANIZATION has to the comic. None of the main characters of the comic are even fucking part of the restoration, let alone hang out at the HQ. It's not like Restoration HQ is the characters home base and now they are going to measurably suffer because of its loss. Hell the issue ends with Sonic and Tails GOING HOME. Back to TAILS' HOUSE. What better demonstration could there be of how little Restoration HQ fucking mattered?

If the issue ended with the ship crashing into Tails's house and destroying it, THAT would have been a significant event. Because Tails's house is a location that actually matters. But Restoration HQ, and the Restoration itself, shouldn't even fucking exist. Because it doesn't exist in the video games. So who cares if it gets flattened? There's no difference to the comic whether that location exists or not.

Surge just fucking. Left. And went to San Francisco to start annoying people there. So nothing happened with her.

Mimic left, which was exactly the status quo of his character before he joined up with Clutch for no reason whatsoever. So no significant changes there.

Lanolin is still a cunt. Nothing about her changed. She literally just has the same speech she had in issue #58

Literally nothing actually happened in this entire storyline lol.

[kingmaxstatic]

“I can’t believe Surge and Kit are doing the same thing with Clutch-“

Okay I agree but consider.

Do you ever think about how working in group’s makes Mimic feel? Do you think when he was with the bad guy squad that Zavok’s bulky form reminded him of smithy. That the shine in Starline’s glasses brings a chill down Mimic’s spines because Slinger’s monocle had the same shine?

Do you think when he sees the earrings on surge’s ears that he thinks of Claire? Does the wag of Kit’s tail remind him of someone who’s currently trying to kill him? When Clutch gives orders in Clean Sweep do you think he’s reminded of the cozy base he once had?

Does he hear Surge’s speeches about how the world hurt her and how she just has to hurt it back and think of the people he was meant to help?

[sonic-hot-takes]

New Sonic media needs to introduce more heroic male characters to the lineup.

Normally I like my takes quick and spicy and let people come to their own conclusions with them, but out of all my thoughts on the series that I’ve shared with fellow Sonic fans, this one tends to get the most ire. Bellow the cut are my more in depth thoughts on the matter.

I may be forgetting someone but I’m pretty sure the last character the series introduced that was simultaneously a guy, a hero, and had any sort of staying power was Silver all the way back in TWO THOUSAND SIX. This applies to ALL Sonic media/canon, by the way (be it the games, comics, spin offs like Boom, etc.)

The closest character I could think of that fills this criteria is Razor from the post-reboot Archie comics—he did appear in both the main comic and Sonic Universe, and was the only new character to get his own SCO backstory—but for obvious reasons he’s not showing up again any time soon. I don’t count Chip or Yacker since they’re pretty blatantly meant to be one off characters that fill a specific niche for that game’s plot. Also let’s be real they’re both mid as hell

Compare this to the girls: Sticks, Tangle, Whisper, Sage (who is framed as more of an antihero in Frontiers than a villain), Trip, this new girl from Dream Team…

People scream sexist at me whenever I bring this up, which is ironic because I am a Girl™ myself. My favorite Sonic character, Blaze, is a Girl™. Sticks is one of my favorite additions to the series in a long time, and she’s a Girl™. I’m not against Girl™ in Sonic.

BUT it does make me raise a brow looking at the track record of new characters that have been introduced to the series, specifically when it comes to gender and morality alignment. This is a lot more prevalent in the IDW comics than in the games, but it’s present in both.

Since Colors (which signaled a shift in direction in the series), the new antagonists we’ve gotten in the games are: Orbot and Cubot, the mostly male Deadly Six, the Hardboiled Heavies (if you wanna count them), Infinite, and Sage (kind of). In the IDW comics, we’ve gotten Rough and Tumble, Dr. Starline, Mimic, Clutch, Kit, and Surge.

In the same time period, the new leading/supporting protagonists we’ve gotten in the games are Yacker, the Forces OC, Sage (kind of), Trip, and Ariem (the new girl from Dream Team). You can also squeeze Sticks in here since she’s the only Boom character to get any extra relevance or spotlight on her outside of that spin off. In the IDW comics, we’ve gotten Tangle, Whisper, Jewel, Belle, and Lanolin.

Sure, there’s a little overlap here and there. But you should notice a pattern.

Do not interpret this as me saying that Sonic Team or the writers at IDW have some kind of anti-men agenda going on. That’s not what I’m suggesting. BUT I am getting tired of every new hero being a girl and just about every new villain being a boy. Can’t we switch it up a little?

Even the most prominent female antagonists in the series have some kind of sympathetic edge to them. Surge was brainwashed and experimented on by Starline. Sage’s character arc is supposed to be the focal point of Frontiers, and she only does evil things under Eggman’s command. Trip isn’t even evil in the first place, she just ends up working with Eggman and Fang for…reasons, and ultimately turns against them and becomes a playable hero. They’re not framed the same way that most, if not all of the male villains are. Not even Merlina is fully immune of this.

Outside of the sexist allegations, I usually get one of two responses whenever I bring this up:

A lot of Sonic fans are girls, so the series should introduce more female characters in order to appeal to their female fans.

The series already has a lot of male characters, so they need to balance out the cast with more girls.

Both of these points have their merits and flaws. I think that both of them are/were true up to a certain point, but nowadays they don’t hold up as well after we HAVE gotten tons of new female characters. When Sticks and Tangle were first shown off, I was ecstatic! Sticks being a fourth wall breaking conspiracy theorist is both tons of fun and a character archetype that the series hadn’t explored until then, and Tangle has one of my favorite designs of any Sonic character. But at some point, I started to notice the trend of every new hero being a girl and every new villain being a boy, and it really started to bother me. For IDW Sonic it was around the time Belle and Clutch were introduced (with Lanolin ultimately being the straw that broke the camel’s back—she insists upon herself), and for the games it was after seeing Ariem in Dream Team (I probably would’ve been more annoyed by the Fang/Trip dichotomy if I wasn’t absolutely joyous that the Nack Is Baaaaack). The whole “we need to introduce more girls to the series” angle doesn’t hold up as well when the series seems reluctant to commit to a straight up evil girl. Sonic desperately needs to flesh out his rouges gallery in the games, so why not add an absolutely psycho female antagonist?

Also this is a more personal note but I hate hate HATE it when people allege that girls can’t relate to male characters, so franchises need to introduce the Girl™ character so the Girls™ can relate to her. Can girls not relate to boys? Can boys not relate to girls? Once again, not against female characters in general, but that particular mindset has and will always bother me.

Who knows, maybe Ariem will end up being the main villain of Dream Team. It’d be cool, but I don’t see Sonic Team taking that route, especially not on an Apple Arcade exclusive. I don’t expect any big twists in that game.

Those are my two cents. I just think it’d be cool if we got a new boy as well as all the new girls we’ve been getting.

[jade-branch-qa]

To everyone. yes everyone on the list:

If you needed to time travel and weren't given an option not to, when would you go to ? ;p

and killing the person forcing you to time travel is not an option either

Everyone was gathered in Surge's living room aside from Sonic who took the question from Tail's house to avoid upsetting Surge.

"I'd go back in time to kill Starline during my fight with Sonic." Surge said without hesitation. "It's not fair that Eggnerd got the honour. He was mine."

"Why not earlier? Save yourself from-" Tails asked, only to be interrupted by the tenrec.

"Because if I did... I wouldn't have met Jewel and Kit."

Jewel and Kit smiled at that before it was Tail's turn to speak.

"I would've transitioned earlier. It's probably my biggest regret." she hummed. "Go back to when I met Sonic and convince myself so I could be happy."

"I would have gone back to the day I met Mimic...and kill him." Whisper snarled, her volume surprising everyone but Lanolin just nodded.

"If I knew when, I would join you."

"And I'd have to go to stop you." Tangle sighed before holding up her hands in surrender as wolf and sheep alike stared angrily at her. "To put him in jail, for life!"

"I don't know..." Jewel sighed. "There's so much I wish I could do differently...maybe convince myself to not trust Clutch? Be there for Surge and Kit earlier? It's difficult to pick just one."

"Drown Starline the moment he was born." Kitsunami muttered, earning shocked looks from everyone in the room. "What?"

"But...then I wouldn't..." Surge tried.

"You wouldn't have been tortured, brainwashed and made to hurt people." the kit said as he folded his arms. "You wouldn't miss me since you never knew me."

"Kit, please don't do that if you ever get a time machine!" Surge pleaded and he was shocked at her response to his answer to a purely hypothetical question. "Please!"

"Fine..." Kit grumbled. "But that's still my answer."

Sang-mi just stared at the two siblings before sighing.

"I'd rather not say..." she said, refusing to meet Surge's eyes but Kit knew that she was thinking the same thing he was. It did hurt a bit but he knew where she was coming from.

Sonic for his part sat in Tail's kitchen and just shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Get my younger self to help Tails figure out who she is sooner. She's so much happier now."

[totaleclipse573]

can I hear more about Shadow and Eclipse/Sonic and Tails swap au?

It’s still pretty new, but I can tell you my thoughts right now!

So basically, Shadow and Eclipse are the brothers who generally get along well and, GASP! THEY KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN A HEALTHY MANNER?? I haven’t decided yet whether or not I keep them as part of the black arms, or if I give those traits to sonic and tails. Because if they stay black arms, then eclipse still looks very alien. If not? Then I might turn him into a lizard or something idk XD

Tails was made to counter Sonic. (All of their names are still the same, by the way! To avoid confusion) Why is he a fox? No clue but the two tails were definitely on purpose. They’re pretty complicated, to say the least.

Amy is swapped with Rouge. So Amy becomes the treasure hunter/thief and Rouge becomes the peppy and uplifting one. Starline and Eggman are swapped too, for reasons I think you can guess. Who has the warp topaz is also something I’m trying to figure out. It’s an au, so not everything has to be the same as canon, but it’s a SWAP au, so DOES Eggman have the topaz now? I’m not sure, but probably 😅

Silver and Blaze might swap too. And also maybe Surge/Kit, Tangle/Jewel, and Whisper with Mimic? These could change though.

Whether or not I swap doom with someone is also something I’m considering. I have options, though. And do I use doom or doleon? Is Terios even in this? That could complicate things, unless I find a way for it not to? Like I said, the au is still pretty new and highly in development. But I’m open to any suggestions or ideas! I love the concept so far.

[yeets-ix]

Sonic Bad Guys AU Infodumping

@thefakehedgehogaroundhere pitched the AU and its roles, I went too far and fleshed it out a LOT.

Here's the first round, the basics of the characters:

The Bad Guys go by “Ms. Surge,” Ms. Metal, Mr. Rough, Mr. Tumble, Mr. Duo and Mr. Kitsunami (for fun.)

Backstory: While the AU is mostly just the self-contained plot of the movie, Eggman and Starline did exist in the AU… emphasis on DID. In a very very deliberately loose interpretation of Sonic canon setting up this AU, they created Surge, Kit and Metal, but were ultimately defeated for good, with their former creations and minions being left to form various random organizations including the Bad Guys, none of whom are nearly as much of a threat anymore. Sonic took all the credit for “beating” Eggman, though it probably wasn’t actually him in this AU considering this version of him is also a villain and has just been using his hero image for personal gain (hell, considering his Marmalade-assigned wealth, he probably bought out Eggman Industries after the Doctor was gone.)

Ms. Surge, instead of the “big bad wolf,” boasts about being an “evil twin.” A twisted and evil counterpart to a hero. Of course, she turns out to actually be the good one between herself and Sonic in this AU, but that’s beside the point. She still doesn’t remember her original life and has only experienced being compared to Sonic and seen as a monstrous, evil version of him, never being given any other chance. When Sonic gets exposed as the criminal he is and arrested, Surge, Kit and Metal recognize they’re fully free and able to go good, what with him being put away for good.

Ms. Metal was also originally designed after Sonic (that’s why she and Surge are best friends,) but being “the safe-cracker,” has modified herself with some help from Kit into a heist-focused robot with stealth tech, safe-cracking tools, and the ability to turn into a hyper-boost engine for the getaway car. She’s the “most evil” because she’s still programmed to defeat Sonic, even if she’s currently spending almost all of her time pulling heists with the Bad Guys. She comes around in the end and rejoins Surge and the gang, and stays with her as a good guy after finally taking down Sonic. She’s also kind of addicted to absorbing Wisps.

Mr. Mimic actually goes by Mr. Duo most of the time - he’s made the happy-go-lucky but still evil cat his public identity they think of when they hear the term “Bad Guys.” After genuinely befriending the others, he wants to move on from and forget the even worse crimes he committed as an octopus (even though not necessarily those of his canon self.) That being said, he’s still a shapeshifter and “the distraction.” Instead of Mr. Shark swallowing Mr. Snake when he annoys him, Duo can mess with Metal’s circuits since he’s “good with computers.”

Mr. Rough and Mr. Tumble are the flattest ones, but then again, they always are. They beat the shit out of people, make immature jokes, and Rough uncontrollably sprays when he’s nervous. Mr. Piranha is perfect for both of them (and also for Surge - she’d release catastrophic EMPs - if she wasn’t Mr. Wolf here.)

Mr. Kit is “Drippy” the same way Ms. Tarantula is “Webs.” His laptop has extra monitors and keyboards for his Hydro-Coils the same way as Webs’ does for her eight legs. He’s also still Surge’s younger brother for the feels. Owing to being around 13, he's less anxious and less formal, and with the world aware of his power, more confident in being scary on his own or at his sister's side.

Governor Rose’s backstory as the Crimson Paw Rascal is changed a bit. She, too, gave up just as she was about to steal the Awardy Award (the Golden Dolphin equivalent,) but it was because she realized she’d built her criminal career upon being a “sweet widdle hoggo” who nobody would suspect or believe could be a criminal mastermind, instead blaming more scary or ugly animals. Realizing that not only would some undeserving creature take the fall for the Rascal’s ultimate heist, but she fully knew and wanted to exploit this, just made Amy feel like shit, and she immediately hung up her cowl. Note that this same reason also leads to her despising Sonic for working under the same ideals, and makes her very happy when he’s the one who takes the fall for her crimes in the end.

“A wolf and a fox are not so different” becomes “A tenrec is just a false hedgehog.” Sonic later reuses this line to mock Surge, before Surge and Amy finally wreck him with it in the end.

Sonic as Marmalade? Take every bad take on IDW Sonic in the entire hatedom, make them completely true, and then sprinkle the resulting abomination of a Sonic with Scourge dust. He’s supposedly the same hero as his canon self, but in truth all he cares about is his own entertainment and his own reputation. Lying and manipulating people are what give him “the tingle.” He’s gonna scream “LET’S DO IT TO IT! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” like in that one satire comic as he’s dragged off to S.U.C.M., utterly determined to the end to convince everyone he’s never done anything wrong in his life. Fuck him. He deserves nothing, he is the scum of the earth, I want to punch him in the face, and maybe call in a few other AU Sonics to punch him in the face too.

Heck, I have an OC named Shine who is basically “Sonic but Marmalade” already, and I’d be willing to donate her for this role if I didn’t want Sonic himself to get to chew some scenery.

We’ve agreed Whisper is Chief Luggins due to her power to be incredibly biased against these people, especially Surge with a good helping of Mimic on the side. Lanolin would work too, but I think Whisper being really angry a lot fits better. You poor wolf, you poor meow meow, you poor thing, how did you end up becoming a cop?... or she's just the face of what's left of the Restoration in this universe. Lanolin can probably be Tiffany the reporter, IDK.

To be continued.

[skaruresonic]

Okay, no, Screenrant is on something. The whole point of Clutch is that he's just guy who makes his dirty dealings just beneath notice while having various fronts. Like, the one thing they got right is that he's subtle, which by definition says that Eggman is a massive power player. How do you completely miss that point?

You didn't need to send the same message twice. I was taking a Netflix break.

First off, the article did not imply "Eggman is a massive power player" at all.

Here is the article in its entirety. Note how many times Clutch is portrayed as having more "destructive" potential than Eggman:

This article reads like nonsense in hindsight now that we know Clutch has been exposed via the exact same means Eggman was one-upped by Starline in Imposter Syndrome: via flash drive.

And now that he has no more cards to play, he's going to try and take everyone out with him. Something that, need I remind you, Eggman has also done, so he is definitely not unique in that regard.

What a much more subtle villain Clutch is than Eggman when he does the exact same shit as Eggman. Not to mention, how can his schemes "dwarf" Eggman's when they don't achieve any real degree of success?

We're told that Clean Sweep poisoned the land, water, and air... which is just an average Tuesday for Eggman.

So something that people complained about in Forces (telling us about the villain's impact via exposition rather than showing us) happens again in IDW. We're just supposed to take the book's word for it, even consider Clutch's impact worse than Eggman's impact in the games, because... ?

Even putting aside the article's denigration of Eggman's villainy - Eggman can and has plotted against Sonic and co. before; the book forced him to take a hit to his IQ and suddenly turn a blind eye to a problem in order to facilitate Starline's pedestal break - everything Clutch has done has come unraveled just as quickly. He's bested not by Sonic and co., but by OCs Jewel and Nite. His reputation got nuked in one fell swoop.

The narrative considers Clutch a Machiavellian villain until it suddenly needs him to turn into a scrub, lest we actually need to rub some fucking brain cells together to come up with a way for Sonic and co. to win on their own merits without the hand of the author orchestrating victory for them.

My dude goes from threatening to make Sonic eat his own quills in one issue to tripping over somebody's leg Surge-style the next:

...According to the logic that contends that Eggman is not a "real" threat because he usually meets defeat in the end, Clutch should similarly be considered a scrub now that he has no more power over people except to take them out with him in a desperate kamikaze.

Surge? He kept her in line with vague threats for a while, but she never actually did anything to further his goals. She decided to go along with Kit's plan instead:

Likewise for Mimic.

[koreyeet]

Blood/cannibalism/missing body parts warning

Yet another au the tism made me make

Basically after issue 56 when they where on the run Surge didn’t wake up and as food storage at there base dwindled Kit got desperate so instead of going into society like a normal person he made the horrifying decision to snack on Surge. He felt too bad eating anything vital so he kind of just nommed on the toes, fingers and ears. This still mentally fucked with him but at the same time he grew a taste for flesh.

Something something he felt too bad eating anymore of her and came to the conclusion she was just stuck in the unconscious state forever so he just took her into the woods or something and buried her under some shrubs and brush I don’t know. Then after finding the charred remains of Starline in the wreckage of Eggperial city and steals his drip.

The most I have after this is that he stalks and non homophobically kills Don and then gets caught by Nite where he’s arrested.

Surge wakes up at a point I don’t know when, not knowing what just happened, realizes she has no phalanges except her thumbs (she doesn’t feel the pain) and just wanders into the city trying to keep a low profile, stealing shit from dumpsters to survive and is eventually found by Amy who insists on getting her help because women where she sees Kit being interrogated or something.

Huge wip I might make some mini comics about it

Tbh might add Mimic being a figure to Kit when he’s in prison

She realized after this she can’t give the middle finger anymore

[star-critter]

(When someone asks Rough & Tumble about their ages)

Rough : Oh, I'm 4, and Tumble is 6 !

Mimic : What. You two are not that fucking young!

Starline : Not to mention you're twins.

Tumble : Yeah, We're twins. We just don't share a birthday.

Zavok : What?

Rough : Yeah! Every year, we fight to see who's birthday it's gonna be.

Tumble : And whoever wins turns a year older! The looser stays the same!

(Zavok quietly trying to do the math in his head)

Starline : Do you two at least know how old you were when you started this... tradition?

Rough : Nope.

Tumble : No idea.

(Zavok quietly gives up on the math)

Mimic : Do you two even know the day you were fucking born?

Rough : Nah, we just picked a random day.

Mimic : Fair.

Starline : Pardon?

Zavok : I can't say I've paid close attention to you Mobians and your smaller ages, but I'd say they're about the age you consider teenagers, just based on their behavior.

Mimic, getting flashbacks to having to work with Whisper during the original Diamond Cutters : Not again....

Tumble : Yeah, we can get behind that! We're uh- We're Sonic's age! How old is Sonic again?

Mimic : I don't know, maybe fifteen? Is he still fifteen?

Rough : Yeah! We're fifteen!

Tumble : Yep! We're fifteen now!

Starline : That's.... That's not how it - (tired and somewhat defeated sigh) Alright.

- Context & Headcanons under cut -

I was going to take this as an opportunity to show off the Bumblekast clip of Ian Flynn talking about how Rough & Tumble celebrate their birthday only to find out that I accidentally lost or deleted the screen recording at some point.

It does not help that because I'm Autistic and, therefore, struggle to read black text, making the concept of going through the Q&A Masterlist a nightmare.

Not to mention, I don't remember what year that question was from 🥲

[ Not mad just mildly annoyed that I lost the clip ]

But yeah, this incorrect quote post basically explains the Bumblekast's lore (based on my memory of it).

They don't know their actual birthday.

They picked a random date.

And they fight over who's birthday it is.

As for my headcanons :

Rough & Tumble are teenagers. High school age.

When Mimic was younger, he got annoyed about others trying to do things for his birthday (He does not like attention and has no idea how to accept kindness or gifts) so he just erased his date of birth from any records as he got older. He still knows his age and the year he was born. He just doesn't really have any specific day anymore.

The Original Diamond Cutters ages are wacky imo. Headcanon : Everyone in the team, except Whisper was an adult. Whisper was taken in as either a Tween or young Teen.

[beevean]

Reminder that Surge's greatest act of villainy was using five wisps against their will

Something that Eggman has already done before. But when Eggman harassed and enslaved wisps, he did it on an interplanetary scale/to the entire species

It's crazy how the idw comic will do anything to convince audiences that its original villains are cool EXCEPT having them do anything actually impressive

I just remembered. One of the first things the comic establishes is that Eggman can endanger entire worlds when left unchecked. the comic has yet to introduce a new villain who matches that threat level, but we're still expected to take the comic villains more seriously than Eggman? Even though in this very same comic Eggman released a virus that nearly ended all life on the planet?

Are we really supposed to think the comic villains are scary purely because the story said they are?

The idw comic completely fumbles the rule of show don't tell

To be fair, I would put "nearly killing Sonic by electocuting him in a pool of water" high up as well. That's attempted murder, or murder even if we believe Flynn that Sonic died for a few seconds. The fact that Sonic's heart restarted doesn't make it less violent.

Of course, that's also the same scene where Surge is stopped by her own device breaking, so basically just her being unlucky, so it's hard to see her as a worthy foe :P

But yeah, they are still nowhere near Eggman's level of threat, which maybe why they keep benching him lol. I guess... Starline aided Eggman with the Metal Virus, which made him responsible by proxy? That's the most I got.

The villains in IDW are mostly petty delinquents. They are pre-Phantom Ruby Infinite level of threat. You know, the jobber that Shadow kicked so hard in the face he had a mental breakdown? I get that the comic is very low stakes at this point, but the villains simply aren't compelling. Clutch wants to be the hot shit but he's boring as sin because his personality doesn't go beyond "smooth kingpin", Mimic is only getting his way because Lanolin is an idiot asshole, Surge doesn't know whether she wants to be an edgy badass or a woobie, Kit doesn't exist, and even Starline lost his charm when he started to sniff his own farts. (I'm not counting Rough and Tumble because they are barely nuisances)

[randomthefox]

I got an idea. Why not just show that Clutch is menacing. Come on.

You're right about Surge killing him on the spot, and this can be EASILY fixed.

Let Surge attack him, but he COUNTERS her. ( Maybe he uses a device or something ) and he barely has to move for this. He not only blocks their attacks, he STUNS them. He wants Surge to become one of his 'allies' and offers her a clue to her past. ( a real one, not just a red herring. this will become important later on when the characters will search for their identity )

Surge will have no choice but to obey him, despite the fact that she hates it. Her reason to want to become a hero should've been that the others are there for her, and will support her like friends. She wants to ditch Clutch because of it, but we see that this green possum is ALWAYS one step ahead, and basically makes no room for escape.

Just give this guy SOMETHING that makes him a threat. Give him SOME KIND of skill that allows him to block any attacks of the main cast. FUCKING. SOMETHING. THEN he become menacing.

He should portray power like a real godfather, having spies, minions, etc. But we never get to SEE THAT.

This is BASIC.

Why do these writers suck so hard!?

I actually think Clutch would be a lot more interesting if he WASN'T menacing. If he was just a street level crime boss, and he regarded the Sonic cast as the cosmic level god slayers that they are. But this comic is literally predicated on the foundation of "the Sonic video games and everything from them are bad" so obviously Stanley is not going to have her OC treat the Sonic cast as horrifying threats that he wants to avoid as an ant trying to crawl beneath the notice of an elephant.

Honestly I'll make it even easier for you: just don't ever show Clutch and Surge in the same room together. At all. They'd already established that Mimic is being used as a middle man to relay orders to Surge and Kit. So just do that. (Why the fuck are Surge and Kit able to just galavant up to Clutch's airship? Especially since they're supposed to be undercover as members of the Restoration, who are being barred from entry by his security? Did the possibility that Jewel, the leader of the Restoration, might run into Surge and Kit on the airship not occur to him? Is he stupid?)

Just have Clutch have all his meetings using Mimic as the go between, or over some kind of video call. So that way Surge literally CAN'T even TRY to kill Clutch even if she wanted to, and his threats of social leverage against her would have actual weight because no matter what she wants to do he can press a button on his desk faster than she can do ANYTHING to try and stop him. Why is he taking the risk of being anywhere NEAR this emotionally unstable nuclear bomb of a science experiment especially since he is personally responsible for Starline creating them in the first place.

Stanley is too far up her own ass to even consider that though, because Clutch is her character so obviously she's going to write him as being able to kow Flynns character into submission because he's just SOOOO COOL AND SCARY no matter how fucking idiotic and nonsensical it is. Again, I posit: Clutch would be far more interesting if he was presented as an underdog villain who was completely outclassed by the main characters AND WAS AWARE OF IT. Instead of Stanley trying to pass him off as her own personal Thanos.

[starknife-starmimi]

You look up Starmimi, you get a clothing brand.

You look up Starmic, and you get microphones

You look up Starduo and you get 2 random internet people

You look up Duoline and you get a technology company

You look up StarKnife and you get weapons

You look up Mimicline, Google autocorrects it to Mimiline, which is a Korean shopping mall. If you correct Google's autocorrect, you get a bunch of random things, a Mimicline fankid & Whispangle Fankid tiktok and one of the rarepair tournament posts when we were against MetAmy.

Conclusion : For every Mimic/Starline ship name we come up with, there is already something else with the same damn name 🤣

[crazy56u]

Spoilers, the tags might be relevant here...

Fellas, is it normal to casually admit you have mentally worked out how a certain issue of a certain comic could've ended differently had the writers involved wanted to kill off a certain character?

Is it normal to just shoot that off on a Tumblr post on a Sunday afternoon?

So yeah, I'm yet a-fucking-gain talking about IDW #53, and, full disclosure, I may have started fiddling with writing this out.

So, yeah, let's pretend, as a hypothetical, Evan Stanley decided to go fucking wild, and use the fight against Surge as an excuse to kill off Whisper, how the fuck would that work?

Well, the major change is the easiest: Sonic and Tails show up late.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is practically a literal fucking miracle that, even though Sonic and Tails' house got fucked up during the badnik riot going into Issue #50, the computer managed to avoid getting broke.

Now, granted, by the time Jewel contacted Tails, this had happened-

But, hey, Sonic and Tails still managed to speed over to Central City in time to stop Surge from finishing the job, right?

So, let's assume the computer also needed to get fixed, and they didn't get that call from Jewel when they did.

So, Surge just kills Whisper then and there, right? Post over?

No.

Like I said, I have had dark thoughts, and the way this plays out in my head, that would've been ideal:

After getting distracted by her Starline hallucination, Surge remembers "Oh, right, I was about to kill Whisper," and turns her attention back to her; she hadn't yet gotten up, same as in the comic.

In a panic, Cyan tries in vain to protect Whisper, gets absorbed for his trouble. So, literally, it's just the two of them left.

But before deciding to land the blow, Surge decides "You know what, it's not like you're gonna need it after today," and decides as one final stab to take her mask, and wear it.

You know? The thing that can translate Wisps?

So, what do you think would happen if Surge put that on?

If your answer was "sensory overload in the form of five voices screaming at the same time", then yes, that is what would happen...

So, yeah, naturally, hearing all that screaming freaks out Surge, she unknowingly fries Whisper's mask as a result, and after managing to calm down from that, she get really fucking mad, and decides "You know what, fuck being cute," and decides to... well...

Do what she almost did to Sonic three issues later:

She pins her down to the ground, and starts trying to electrocute her to death; it would probably be around here when Sonic and Tails finally show up.

Regardless of how the rest of the confrontation with Surge plays out, the most important thing would be "Holy fuck, Whisper needs to go to the hospital now," and Sonic speeds her over to the nearest one, and she is swiftly put into a hospital bed; she is most likely gonna need heart surgery, but her heart rate needs to settle down first before they can do anything.

So, that's where we currently are: Whisper is in a hospital bed, unconscious and clinging to life, while Surge is dealt with in the background. What happens next?

Enter the other player in this fucked up game.

It is my personal belief that Mimic 100% was nearby in Central City when Whisper and Surge were fighting, and was quietly waiting for Surge to be done so he could finish the job; it's only when Sonic and Tails showed up when they did that he abandoned those plans.

So, in this timeline, that's not what happens.

While Whisper is recovering in the hospital, a nurse quietly enters her room, with the pretense of checking on her.

In reality, this is Mimic, deciding to take advantage of Whisper's already weakened heart.

He fucks with her IV drip, slips out of her room, and by the time he's sneaking out of the hospital, the medical staff are scrambling to try and save their newest patient, who is in the middle of flatlining, but their efforts will ultimately be in vein.

Surge's attack would already caused bare minimum congestive heart failure. Mimic inducing a heart attack would be the nail in the coffin.

And so, to summarize: How would Issue #53 (and technically 54) need to be rewritten if it was decided to kill off Whisper?

Smash Tails' computer beforehand.