#sega knows what they're doing with the name

[serrybluesoul]

CRYING AND LAUGHING ABOUT THE NAME RN

BUT MAN I'M SO READY. I NEVER EXPECTED TO SEE BLACK DOOM AGAIN

[infizero]

if "sonic x shadow generations" is actually real i will laugh my fucking ass off

[loopingpyre]

So way back, around when P5 was coming out, MysticDistance was making a name subtitling prerelease stuff and interviews. I was in a group with him, The Mayonaka Network, where it was covered, and also later ran interviews with voice actors. But what happens when no one is looking to you for information anymore? You start trying to find stuff to leak. This got him kicked from the group because he started leaking the interviews in advance, and it turned into a whole struggle because he allied himself with another guy in the group, Mike/Skull, who was an asshole (and also kicked). Cut forward a few years, the two of them, (Skull had rebranded to Phansite at this point), have been trying to cultivate Pure Sweet Friendly Community images on twitter pages, before having a big falling out because- they're both kind of shitty people. Mike/Skull/Phansite goes dark, Mystic tries to find Persona news and leaks by pestering people and is wrong too many times before he vanishes too. As it turned out, Mystic wiped (most) of their account, rebranded to Midori and then went back to practicing their japanese and translating Atlus things. Until they somehow managed to get access to some sort of leaked SEGA document, internal 2022-2023 presentations that formed the basis for the shareholder meetings showing their next years plans. So now they create their new persona, a female japanese atlus or sega game dev, who has started Leaking information whilst learning english. The information is mostly correct, and they become super popular. Sonic and Persona are making big numbers after all. But the presentation doc eventually runs out, and they have No More New Information. So they start trying to pester and harass people over dms to try and get new info, which causes a bunch of people to go 'wait the way you're acting is kind of familiar'. It triggers enough flags for some people to go through all of midori's posts and- Wow it turns out Mystic didn't delete all of their old posts, and the wayback machine can prove the account rebrand. And that's the story of how we know that the 'English Learning Game Dev Girl from Japan' Midori, infamous and largely correct leaker on twitter, turned out to be MysticDistance/Ryan, a white dude from Chicago who wants to run for city council. How the hell do you not just clear your account?

[thankskenpenders]

Part1: Thank you for the reply! Sorry if I keep pushing the subject, but what I don't understand is Penders' disdain/hate for Chronicles. For someone who always boasts about his contributions to the Sonic IP, one would have thought he would have been elated to be the inspiration and starting point for what would become a plot and setting of the IP's core media, games. Plus, you said it yourself, to everyone's knowledge (Even Penders, maybe?) they were seen as fair game at the time of production.

Part2: I would understand if he was asking for acknowledgement/compensation, but his ownership claims seems to be made out of malicious spite, rather than a proper sense of injustice. Like if DC would have dressed Superman in a red & white costume for a few issues after the Fawcett case (I know it's not exactly the same legal case). But why do you think he acts like that? I would love to read your thoughts as you are one of the few capable of reaching unbiased conclusions when it comes to him.

So the thing with the Sonic Chronicles case is that by that point Ken had discovered Archie had lost his contract, cooked up the story that it never existed, and started filing for copyrights for his work. As such, he argued that Sonic Chronicles taking inspiration from his work was an instance of copyright infringement. In his eyes, Shade literally is Julie-Su, and the Nocturnus Clan literally is the Dark Legion, just with the names changed, and if he never signed a contract then that stuff wasn't fair game for other Sega projects to touch. To him, it wasn't uncredited inspiration, it was theft.

The case was dismissed in court because the Archie v. Penders case to determine who actually owned the copyrights for his work was still ongoing, and then by the time that was settled the statute of limitations for the Chronicles case had passed. (In basic terms: it had been too long since Sonic Chronicles came out to sue over it.) So it ended in a stalemate, with both sides still arguing ownership, and Ken would only be able to revive the lawsuit if Sega did something new with Sonic Chronicles or those characters - a sequel, a port of the game, Shade appearing in new stories, etc.

Since then, it's basically turned into a game of chicken with the copyrights. Ken believes Sega has just washed their hands of Chronicles because they don't want to deal with the legal trouble, which is honestly probably true. Meanwhile, Ken has been testing how far he can push his claims of ownership over Shade before Sega does anything, such as when he announced that Shade NFT that declared she was literally the same character as Julie-Su. (Or at least it would have if he'd ever released it.) If Sega doesn't do anything about it, then they're at risk of forfeiting the copyrights, which Ken will take as a sign that they've fully abandoned Sonic Chronicles as their property and therefore he can do whatever he wants with its elements.

So, basically, yeah, he's still just bitter and spiteful over the plot of Sonic Chronicles being based loosely on his Knuckles comics without his involvement. And to a certain extent I'd get that. Comic artists and writers are paid in table scraps and get no benefits, then they see the companies who own their work turn it into billion dollar movies and video games and mountains of merch, and they don't see a penny of those profits. They don't even tend to earn royalties off of their comics' sales. It's unfair. But while I think he deserved some form of credit and maybe some form of compensation, there's a difference between adaptation and inspiration, and Ken's just being a copyright troll here.

There's immense irony in Ken believing that Bioware's homage to Julie-Su should be seen as the same character as Julie-Su in the eyes of the law, while he's out here publishing a comic featuring K'Nox, The Legally Distinct Character Who Is Totally Not Knuckles. Also, like, one of his pet characters has always been a blatant homage to James Bond. He was out there basing Archie Sonic stories on Star Trek episodes and Superman comics and shit. My favorite Sonic story of his literally just ripped off the plot of "For the Man Who Has Everything." I don't see him out here cutting Alan Moore a check. He's nothing if not a hypocrite.

[project-sekai-facts]

Company that does the translation could potentially be DokiDoki Grooveworks Their website says they handle development and operations of EN SEKAI. If they don’t translate it they probably have control over who gets to translate it.

But there’s also the possibility that the marketing team and developers don’t use the same translators. Or the marketing team has no translators and are provided with translations. Which might explain why the post had wiki names if the marketing team never got the official ones.

Whatever the case SEGA really needs better quality control

Sorry for the incredibly late response to this ask, I've been doing some digging recently trying to work out exactly what is going so wrong behind the scenes of ensekai and remembered this ask. Anyway yes, I believe you're right. That company can be found in the credits in game as well. It's an interesting case actually, because they aren't listed anywhere else in game like on the title or website despite the fact they're seemingly the devs for ensekai like the actual devs instead of SoA as I'd assumed previously. Also weird that this company doesn't have an english branch and this is the only english game they have worked on. Ensekai's in-game credits are annoyingly subpar so I don't know if they did the translations or if they just handle dev stuff? Because sega handles the helpdesk and most other things about the game like the socials and exclusive contents.

[atwas-meme-ing]

HEY ALL!!! If you haven't heard, Unity is gonna start charging devs 20 cents per download. Not per sale, but PER DOWNLOAD. This applies to not only big-name games like Hollow Knight and Ori, but also smaller projects that might be free. This includes mobile games made with Unity, Undertale fan games like Undertale Yellow and Deltatraveler, and also, get this: Murder of Sonic! It was made in Unity, and so far, it's still free, but Sega's gonna hafta start charging for it sooner or later- IF they don't decide to take it down completely.

So, on this note, I have 2 things to say:

Get your favorite games NOW. Some devs, like Team Cherry, are talking about "taking their games down" (so much for Silksong- thanks A LOT, Unity!!!). I don't know if that means you'll still be able to play these games- like on Steam, for instance- if you already have them downloaded.

Please, please, PLEASE, support those games that are made with Unity. 20 cents adds up when there's a million downloads, and if it's like a mobile game, where people don't necessarily have to pay for it, that's going to COST the devs money- a LOT of money. I know we all hate the paywalls and "pay-to-win" schemes in mobile games, but let's be real- crap like this Unity thing are the whole reason those paywalls exist! These devs aren't doing this for free, they're trying to make a living! Even if you only spend $1, only 1 time, that is STILL going to be an 80 cent profit over the new Unity costs, and maybe, just maybe, give some game devs enough incentive to keep the game around.

I know Unity has a bad rep because it's easy to use and allows devs to release games that control poorly because you don't have to be good at coding to do it (*cough* Guardian of Lore *cough*). That's why I haven't used Unity, despite having several game ideas in my head, because I don't know how to code (yet), and I didn't want to release a game like that- and now I never will use Unity. But games like all the ones I've mentioned are proof that Unity CAN be used for good games, in the right hands. So please, if you love a game made with Unity, please support it, so the game doesn't go away. Don't send the devs into bankruptcy just because Unity is a money-grubbing so-and-so.

(Oh, I should also mention, for browser-based games, apparently this "per download" thing also includes "per BROWSER REFRESH". So, yeah, please don't blame the devs, support the devs and blame Unity.)

EDIT: It's not quite as bad as I'd thought. I knew Unity had a threshold, but I thought it was an either/or thing- either a certain number of downloads, or a certain amount of money made from a game. And, it's not, it's both.

So free games (like Murder of Sonic) apparently won't be affected.

Here's their pricing schedule once the threshold is met:

It still adds up for the smaller projects, with Unity taking all or most of the revenue from smaller games.

And one thing that's still bothering me: the install threshold is "life to date" and Unity is charging per install over the threshold. So, if a game's been around for years and had a million downloads and has made 200,000 dollars in the last year, they're gonna end up paying that 200,000 all at once.

At least, that's what I'm reading.

So, ok, I was wrong. Free projects won't be affected. But this is still awful, especially when it's first starting out.

EDIT 2 (2023-09-23): They've lessened the fees:

I'm still not using them. They never had a good reputation- I mean, there's good Unity games, but there's also a lot of bad ones because people can just release games with Unity with no coding experience. I want to make games someday, but I want them to be a good quality, so I'm waiting until I can actually figure out C++ (heck, I'm still wading through HTML, I'm nowhere near real programming languages). As long as I have to learn coding to make something good, I might as well find an engine that I can trust. I hear a lot about Godot. I also think I'll want to look at Monogame, because Monogame was used to make Axiom Verge and Celeste, and it's apparently based on the defunct XNA that was used to make Stardew Valley. Or I'll find something else. But not Unity. I just don't trust them.

[simplyofthestars]

I'm yapping about some sonic shit i came up with (maybe a fangame if i actually knew how to game develop but im learning)

Okay so everybody knows and loves shadow right? and then there's Shadows shadow who every one knows is Mephiles and Mephiles doesn't get shit from Sega.

Yeah he might be in some games but that's just as playable skins and makes cameos every now and then (correct me if im wrong). His main role as an antagonist went to one of the worst Sonic games in history and I personally believe that he deserves something better than that.

HE'S SUPER COOL

He was a big bad who was a sun god split in half like how cool is that? And his design was fucking awesome, like look at this:

Even just by looking at him you're like "This guy is up to no good" cause he's so evil and icy looking which is the opposite of Iblis (still evil looking but fire related instead)

Now I don't give a flying FUCK that this guy is canonically dead, it's Sonic 06 so nothing is canon (aside from the managing to actually kill sonic part, i wanna keep that in)

You rn: "Okay pump the brakes yapfest, the tags promised me sonadow and rouge the bat. What do they have to with Mii-files."

Me: "SsssshHHshHSHsHHHHHHHhhhh. I getting to that."

Now imagine this with me Rouge stans,

✨Evil counterpart that is like the Rouge version of Mephiles✨

"Oh but that can't happen cause Mephiles wasn't originally a copy of shadow he just took that form"

"Mephiles didn't even meet Rouge"

"Mephiles is dead"

SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, LET ME DREAM

EVIL ROUGE

Rouge is a boss bitch who's such an under-used concept in Sonic games and she deserves a game when she's the STAR and not on the sidelines.

Like you can't be serving this much cunt and just be a side character

So Mephiles was named after Mephistopheles who's a german demon guy (either that or Mephitis which is poison gas from swamps and volcanos and stuff) So why not give evil Rouge a name that'll make half the christian population angry? (And to the chill christians who're fine with that, you guys are cool i like you guys)

So I was thinkin: "Hmmmmmmmmmm. Rouge wants the chaos emeralds for her own gain and cause they look pretty. I mean that would sit her somewhere under Envy (cause she WANTS that shit, also im not calling her mammon(greed) or belphegor (sloth)) so that's Leviathan. I would have to re-name her into something that still lets you know 'yeah that's rouge' but also lets you know 'that's not our rouge' so I guess I'll make it Levia (Leh-vee-ah) or Levia (Leh-v-eye-ah)" (ya'll choose which pronounciation ya'll like)

THE STORY OR SOMETHING

So Levia and Mephiles are like "Okay, brother we ain't having that shit, time to kill everyone" for no reason (my excuse is cause I haven't figured it out yet)

Sonadow fans: "LIAR"

Me: "FINE I'LL EXPLAIN THE SONADOW PART"

SONADOW SEGMENT

Everybody knows how fruity they were in Prime and the fact that Sonic (sort of) HUGGED Shadow and he was just like "yep this is happening" and didn't force Sonic to take his hand away like in the past was a dead giveaway

Now obviously they're still arch enemies (what's he arching? his back? okay I'm done I'll get back to explaining) but they would obviously be closer after the past 23 YEARS that they've been fighting. And everyone knows that when it comes to fighting each other they don't hesitate (I mean maybe Sonic does) but then an even bigger evil shows up (Mephiles for example) and they work together.

EXAMPLES:

Nines in Prime (Working together to get their univese back)

Black Doom (Stopping Shadows evil dad from killing all of humanity)

Mephiles and Iblis (Trying to stop them from forming Solaris)

Eggman in fucking everything

Okay I'm out of examples since I know Sonic stuff but im not THAT much of a nerd

So yap yap yap, yada yada yada, they gay

BACK TO THE STORY OR SOMETHING

Levia and Mephiles build a giant evil omega (no i'm not calling him Alpha or Beta, im tired of those jokes) who is basically as big as eggmans death egg in the 2nd movie (but like half the size since he still needs to go everywhere with Levia and Mephiles)

He doesn't actually fight or that would be unfair so he just puts his arms around the battlefield, smacks them down every now and then to shake the ground and keep you on your toes and just sits there.

Now for obvious reasons, Mephiles changes his form a little since he can't look like Shadow forever and learns how to sustain himself without Iblis and fights like a champ but Levia is like "Dude, we can't do nothing without the chaos emeralds if we want to destroy this world and it's meaningless purpose" and Mephiles is like "Ight" and that's as far as I've gotten

I'm going to draw them maybe and ya'll sit tight 🫡

[sage-nebula]

It's been hours and I still don't feel at all bad about being mean earlier, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I am done being even remotely diplomatic about double standards applied to female characters anymore, in any fandom, but in this case specifically the Sonic fandom since that's what this is specifically about. Ever since Lanolin became an actual character with spoken lines people have "theorized" about her being "secretly a villain" because she had a lack of visible emoting, because she was very formal in her speech, because she wasn't peppy and friendly when Vector or others visited the Restoration. Then people really blew their gaskets because she defended (what seemed to her to be) an innocent and defenseless fourteen-year-old against a super-powered fourteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old trained guerilla fighter harassing him. And now people are especially upset because she was mean to Sonic, Amy, and Tails by telling them to get off the road before they got run over by the people still participating in the high speed race.

That's really what it comes down to. Ever since Lanolin was introduced, because she wasn't a peppy, kind, all-smiles female character who wasn't friendly toward fan-favorite male characters, who was even (shock, gasp, horror) rude or mean toward them, who had the sheer audacity to defend herself, she's the fucking devil who needs to get her act together, be humbled, and apologize.

And honestly, after decades of dealing with this kind of sexism, I'm honestly just done with it.

Oh sure, no one will admit that's what it is. They'll dislocate their arms reaching for any reason to justify it. "We're not sexist, we just think it's okay when Shadow is an asshole with no reason at all, but not okay when Lanolin is mean even when she's right because, uh, he's an antihero and Lanolin's a good guy and good guys shouldn't be mean!!" even though Shadow hasn't been shown doing anything morally questionable in actual years, making him an "antihero" in name only, and even if he had, we all know that's bullshit anyway because no one pays attention to labels like that and actually thinks, "Hm, is this character allowed to be mean? Are they allowed to be rude? What is their current literary role designation at Sega?" No, instead it's subconscious gender bias that the most female characters are allowed to be is sassy, and if they go any farther than that at all, ESPECIALLY toward a male character that people enjoy, then they're a bitch that needs to be reminded of their place.

"But Surge!" people will cry. "Surge is mean and people like her!" To which I say, bullshit! The number of people who want Shadow (it's always fucking Shadow) to assault Surge or "tell her what REAL trauma is" is honestly disgusting. There are so many people who want Surge to get her ass beat by other male Sonic rivals, especially Shadow, so she can be "put in her place" because, again, she's a girl and girls aren't "allowed" to be like that, don't you know that? Only boys can be aggressive and mean and have their trauma and angst be sympathetic and interesting.

Of course, I know a lot of this is subconscious bias. Gender roles are baked so deeply into our society that we're raised into them since birth. Literally, many of our parents start dressing us in gendered clothing from the moment that we're born and the gender socialization starts as we grow. But that doesn't mean that I have to tolerate it kindly or that I can't be sick to fucking death of seeing it applied even to fictional characters, especially since it's goddamn fucking boring to have all the female characters in a series just be friendly and helpful and kind, especially when the male characters DO get to be traumatized and mean and rude. If Lanolin was a male character, she'd be one of the most popular IDW original characters. I guarantee you she'd be shipped with so many other characters. But because she's a female character, she's a huge bitch who needs to learn her lesson because otherwise she's annoying and a bitch and probably secretly a villain despite her bio in the artbook literally saying that she has a hard time showing it but she really does want what's best for everyone.

For the record, no, I don't care at all that she's mean sometimes. I think it makes her standout among the female cast especially (especially the female cast on the heroic side since the closest we get to mean there is Rouge, and Rouge isn't even mean, she's just selfish). In fact I think that she should especially be mean to Sonic and, confession time, I was actually bothered by how friendly she was to him when they met up at the beginning of the Urban Warfare arc, because the fact that he got away with THIS bullshit he pulled on her during the Metal Virus arc isn't okay with me:

Sonic really sat his infected ass on the back of Lanolin's chair and then had the goddamn nerve, the sheer AUDACITY, to not remember who she was when Jewel called him into the meeting that cemented the forming of the Neo Diamond Cutters. Lanolin was present and active during all of the Metal Virus missions; she made it all the way to Angel Island without being infected, was one of the very few to do so, Sonic chose to sit on the back of her chair while being infected, and then fucking FORGOT WHO SHE WAS, and yet SHE'S the one who gets lambasted because she was harsh when telling him to get his pedestrian ass off the fucking road before he got fucking run over???

Fuck that. She should be meaner to Sonic specifically. The IDW writers might have forgotten this bullshit that was pulled during the Metal Virus when they had Lanolin's introduction at the beginning of Urban Warfare, but I sure didn't, considering I had been tracking her traumatic incidents from the very beginning. Like there was no reason for him to do this and yet there he is, and then he forgot. But you know who didn't? Lanolin. Or even if she consciously did, well, she's severely traumatized and the body keeps score.

But I digress.

The point is, this fandom has a huge issue with double standards when it comes to reception of male characters versus female characters. And it's not just this fandom, it's all fandoms, but considering I made an untagged post about how I didn't want to deal with the obscene amount of Lanolin hate I knew was going to occur after this issue, only for a clown to find it anyway and proceed to annoy me for a good long while despite me telling them repeatedly that they were the exact type of doofus the post was about, I'm just so beyond done and I had to vent and get it off my chest. I hope Lanolin stays mean. I hope she never apologizes, because she doesn't need to apologize. I hope in the upcoming civil war arc that I feel like is going to happen (though I have my own clown makeup ready for if it doesn't) that the end result is that she splits off from the Restoration with her own faction and they function as a third party mercenary group similar to the original Diamond Cutters, because she doesn't need to kowtow to Sonic's or the Restoration's ideals. And neither does Whisper, for that matter, and if the civil war arc does happen I'm positive that Whisper is going to be on Lanolin's side. (Tangle, however, won't be. Divorce arc real and I'm here for it tbh, much as I love whispangle.)

Anyway. That's off my chest now. I'm going to go play Stardew Valley.

[randomthefox]

"Claiming that Zack Snyder's version of Batman who uses guns and blatantly kills people is 'out of character' doesn't really make any sense."

If you're going to make an adaptation of a character, then yes it is perfectly reasonable to expect that adaptation to stay true to the core defining traits of the character it is supposed to be adapting. Otherwise why even bother keeping the same name and general design in the first place? Why not just have it be a completely new original character whom you can do whatever you want with? This idea that adaptations can take the characters names and designs and then just do whatever they want with them is completely ridiculous, regardless of whether it's an adaptation OR a fan AU. The POINT of an AU is to show these familiar characters in unfamiliar settings, is it not? To show what would change and what would stay the same if their nurture was slightly or radically different, right? If you're going to have the character act COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY from how they're supposed to be, then that's not a "different take on the character", thats just an OC wearing the popular characters skin. To which I ask: why not just make an OC?

You are correct and I agree with this. The creators of SatAM clearly were not trying to make a version of Sonic that in any way resembled the content found within the video games. They just wanted to make their own little cartoon.

That is, indeed, the REASON that SatAM and its Sonic are BAD. That is indeed THE PROBLEM.

Provably false. They were sent a BOX of materials for DiC to use when making SatAM, including unique concept art for Tails drawn by Tails very own creator specifically for use as a model sheet for the show. The creators of SatAM disregarded everything that SEGA sent them. This narrative that "they didn't have enough to work with" has always been bogus, and now we have definitive proof. You need to stop with this claim of "they didn't have enough to work with" because we know FOR A FACT it is wrong. They were given everything they needed to make a show that authentically adapted the content of the video games. They didn't.

SatAM is a bad show on its own merits and it is a bad adaptation because it didn't even TRY to depict the world and characters of the video games, and the same goes for every other Sonic cartoon and comic book as well.

[crusherthedoctor]

"It doesn't matter. The vast majority of the loudest fans have already made their mind up. They swear that he's not a bad guy after all. And with how fans have grown to easily influence the official side of things (exhibit A: Ian Flynn being everywhere), it's likely that their interpretation will be pandered to no matter what their intention originally was."

Not trying to start a fight here, but this post felt a bit too... defeatist. You say there's more that annoys you about the current trend, but (genuinely curious) is there, aside from being fatigued by fandumb's bs (and people outside the fandom)?

And believe me, I do understand it. Sometimes it really does feel like it's you vs the world. And your worry in particular seems to be that the loudest voices in the Sonic fandom (which are often also wrong and/or biased) can end up becoming influential to some extent, which will only validate said voices (and people outside the fandom, since those voices will be the only ones heard) and make them stronger, especially in light of recent events given the new general perception of this being "the rebirth of the good old Sonic".

With Eggman's view on Maria's death and Sage's general existence as recent catalysts, you are correct in that the fandom already has a predetermined view of him being "not so bad". Moreover, I'll say the fandom is fully willing to incorporate any canon aspect into that interpretation, no matter how contradictory. But honestly, is it really the fault of Sage as a character that the fandom takes everything about her backwards? Even back when she didn't exist, back when Belle didn't exist, back when Eggette didn't exist, the fandom was going through the exact same motions with Metal and how Eggman clearly thinks of him like a son and that's a tell-tale sign that he is dad of the year. Some even went through the same with Orbot and Cubot. Some even did it with the E-Series. If Sage didn't exist, the fandom would continue being the same, just with a different character as a catalyst.

This is all just a general part of the fandom existence, one that's not even unique to Sonic, even if in lesser capacity. Is it unfortunate? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. But sometimes things just are, and you gotta live with that and persevere.

As for Flynn, to me, a person who doesn't like the comics, he just feels like a living marketing gimmick to Sega. They know his name (and to an extent, the comic) drums up attention and so they wave his name around in attempt to sell their games to all the possible audiences. Don't take this as me saying your feelings are unjustified, I'm only saying you don't have to take it all beaten down.

Sorry if what I said was too blunt or harsh. I'm relatively new to your posts, so I don't know the finer details of what the fandom put you through, but I think you are letting them influence your thoughts too much, basically handing them the victory over you. Let dumbasses be dumbasses, you keep being you and doing what you like. There are more voices like yours out there than you may think, they will hear you. Just don't give up. Be as stubborn as Sonic is.

Not trying to start a fight here, but this post felt a bit too... defeatist. You say there's more that annoys you about the current trend, but (genuinely curious) is there, aside from being fatigued by fandumb's bs (and people outside the fandom)?

If you call this defeatist, I'd like to see what you think about all the people who spent the entire previous decade lamenting repeatedly how they're drifting away from Sonic due to their disapproval of the Pontaff games.

I've already made clear that I don't think the other characters' writing and overall handling have been up to par either (with exceptions, such as Dream Team). I've already made clear that I have other issues with Frontiers/IDW/Prime, such as the way plotting is approached in general, including the trend of casual retcons. I've already made clear that I don't even like the gameplay of Frontiers all that much, meaning I'm not particularly hyped about the possibility of that being the norm going forward (disclaimer: I'm actually open to, er, open world gameplay, but not like this).

And believe me, I do understand it. Sometimes it really does feel like it's you vs the world. And your worry in particular seems to be that the loudest voices in the Sonic fandom (which are often also wrong and/or biased) can end up becoming influential to some extent, which will only validate said voices (and people outside the fandom, since those voices will be the only ones heard) and make them stronger, especially in light of recent events given the new general perception of this being "the rebirth of the good old Sonic".

I wouldn't be concerned about it if there wasn't already a precedent for it, meaning it's likely to continue happening.

With Eggman's view on Maria's death and Sage's general existence as recent catalysts, you are correct in that the fandom already has a predetermined view of him being "not so bad". Moreover, I'll say the fandom is fully willing to incorporate any canon aspect into that interpretation, no matter how contradictory. But honestly, is it really the fault of Sage as a character that the fandom takes everything about her backwards? Even back when she didn't exist, back when Belle didn't exist, back when Eggette didn't exist, the fandom was going through the exact same motions with Metal and how Eggman clearly thinks of him like a son and that's a tell-tale sign that he is dad of the year. Some even went through the same with Orbot and Cubot. Some even did it with the E-Series. If Sage didn't exist, the fandom would continue being the same, just with a different character as a catalyst.

Yet another opinion I've expressed multiple times beforehand: I don't care for Sage even on her own merits due to how boring and - for how much she was hyped up as Eggman's greatest creation yet - surprisingly and consistently incompetent she is. Her dragging Eggman down is merely the cherry on top of the shit cake.

And you're absolutely right, fans have indeed already used Metal Sonic and other characters for this sort of thing before, and would have continued doing so regardless... but that doesn't mean SEGA themselves should be egging them on, intentionally or unintentionally. They could have simply continued right along, but instead they've provided their own semi-legitimate ammunition for these fans to go "See??? See???", thereby making it a whole lot more inescapable than ever before. And considering how it's a tale as old as time that other villains in the franchise are regularly praised for being "truly" evil, such as Mephiles for example, it's obvious that they just want Eggman out of the way so that the Real Villains can take center stage.

This is all just a general part of the fandom existence, one that's not even unique to Sonic, even if in lesser capacity. Is it unfortunate? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. But sometimes things just are, and you gotta live with that and persevere.

Just because it exists in other fandoms, and has been a thing since fandoms have been a thing, doesn't mean I can't complain about it. Especially with how long I've endured it. With all due respect, this falls into whataboutism territory.

As for Flynn, to me, a person who doesn't like the comics, he just feels like a living marketing gimmick to Sega. They know his name (and to an extent, the comic) drums up attention and so they wave his name around in attempt to sell their games to all the possible audiences. Don't take this as me saying your feelings are unjustified, I'm only saying you don't have to take it all beaten down.

You know what else they can easily use to drum up attention, knowing fans would go crazy for it?

Portraying Eggman like this. Because it's been established that fans (generally speaking, not referring to literally every single person in it) think Eggman is stale and one-note unless he's a father figure or brings up a moral standard every time he speaks.

Sorry if what I said was too blunt or harsh. I'm relatively new to your posts, so I don't know the finer details of what the fandom put you through, but I think you are letting them influence your thoughts too much, basically handing them the victory over you. Let dumbasses be dumbasses, you keep being you and doing what you like. There are more voices like yours out there than you may think, they will hear you. Just don't give up. Be as stubborn as Sonic is.

Sonic is a fictional character who can conveniently be written to have that level of stubbornness no matter what he goes through. I'm a real person, not a product of the writer's pen, and reality is rarely as straightforward.

I've dealt with alienation for over a decade. I've dealt with on-and-off harassment for over a decade, which has only increased in frequency ever since IDW became a thing and I started criticising it (before you ask, the harassment I screencap and show in posts only makes up a small percentage, there's a lot more that I don't bother showing because it would be redundant). Various details about me that are beyond my control, such as my autism or simply being a white male, have been repeatedly brought up and jeered at despite not being relevant to my Sonic opinions. No matter how concise I attempt to be in expressing my opinions, people are guaranteed to paint said opinions in a false and overly simplified light just to portray me as an idiot who doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about. When I experienced an attack in real life in 2019, people cheered it on and expressed to my face how they were disappointed that I wasn't killed. When I experienced a different incident last year, I didn't even go into details publicly because I knew they'd cheer that one on too. When I lost my grandmother, they celebrated her death just because it was me. My friends have been frequently subjected to similar harassment and abuse over the years, either because of their own opinions, or because they happen to be friends with yours truly. And every time I show a little bit of frustration, or fatigue, usually within my own lane at that, I'm the one who is portrayed as a deranged maniac who is out to make people suffer, while the fans who throw around death threats like they're candy, either to me and my friends or to people associated with the franchise, curiously don't get held up nearly as often for their behaviour.

It's very easy to wave the finger at me and tell me to not give up, take it on the chin, and so on. But this isn't about them "having the victory over me". This is not a video game. This is real life. Mental health is important, more important than painting a fake smile as I sit through an insufferable, volatile, hypocritical, emotionally draining echo chamber of a video game fandom just because "Sonic would peservere through it". Trying my best is one thing, and I always will try my best, but I can't pretend to be someone I'm not. I'm allowed to get upset. I'm allowed to get tired. I'm allowed to admit that I feel more welcomed and respected regardless of differing perspectives in other fan communities. I shouldn't be held up to a near-impossible standard while other people in the same community scream bloody murder over the slightest things on a regular basis.

[therummesoccupied]

IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, ISSUE #71 - THOUGHTS

I absolutely would have continued putting this off, but then I found out that the 2024 Annual releases tomorrow, so I'd better get my ass in gear.

Issue #71 marks the end of the Extreme Competition arc... sorta. Evan has stated that she sees Issues #69-#75 all as the Phantom Riders arc. The Trade Paperback titles, however, refer to #69-#71 under the Extreme Competition name, so I'll keep using that for the time being, just to keep consistent with the release titles.

#71, like #s 70 and 69 before it, is an absolute banger. We've got Min Ho Kim back for pencils, really giving us a nice look at what they're capable of when handling action scenes - with the bulk of this issue taking place during a sort of Extreme Gear Dodgeball Match.

While most of the action is very clear and readable, there was one scene that I did have to glance at couple times to figure out what was going on.

I'm sure part of it was due to my colorblindness (deutan gang rise up), but I did not realize at first that this was meant to show a second Phantom Rider entering the scene. I thought for a moment Sonic had just rushed the field and was wondering why he had Duo's scarf. As soon as I realized it was a different guy entirely, it wasn't hard to piece together that this was Duo... or rather, it was Mimic. Who is Duo. Tomato tomato.

This second Phantom Rider is the source of pretty much all of this issue's juicy drama.

Using his clever disguise, Mimic throws Sonic off his game while riling everybody else up - Surge, Jet, Lanolin, all of them are dead set on catching this guy. He even switches forms over to Surge for a moment to set Whisper off and get everyone fighting each other.

It actually kind of goes to show that Mimic is a lot better at being the Phantom Rider than Sonic ever was, with Sonic's intentions behind adopting the persona being to throw off everyone's focus and cause a distraction. With Mimic throwing everyone's actions into disarray, he gets Sonic distracted long enough to unmask him.

An unintended consequence of this is that, while he escapes without being spotted himself, Tangle, Whisper, Surge, Kit, Jet, Wave, and Storm all see Sonic without his helmet.

And all of them have pretty interesting reactions to the whole thing!

Surge broods about it a bit, but is quickly distracted by meeting an adoring young fan.

Now, some of the eagle-eyed among you may notice - the little girl's mother is the Conductor's wife from The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog! It's a little weird that she's here, as SEGA continues to be fairly insistent that TMoStH is non-canon, but Evan Stanley, when asked about the appearance of characters from said game in IDW, has said that she simply thinks a similar event occurred at some point in this world.

Personally, my theory is that SEGA is eventually gonna just... change their mind and canonize it, and when that time comes, we'll probably get some retroactive explanation that all of this happens before that.

Anyway, in terms of what the encounter means to this story, it's neat to see Surge, who has been so caught up in the Hero Worship she's been receiving this arc, receive a more innocent adoration from a child who genuinely looks up to her. It gets her thinking for the first time about whether she deserves the praise she's sought as long as she can remember. This drives her and Kit to resolve to go straight and become heroes for real.

This is really cool! I didn't think we'd ever get any form of redemption arc for Surge, especially since I believe Ian Flynn stated at one point that it wasn't in the cards, that she was intended to be a villain always. And, to be honest, I don't know if it'll work out even with her trying. Clutch has got her and Kit on a pretty tight leash, and he's bound to do whatever he has to in order to reel them in if they start to get out of line. If the next issue previews are any indication, anyway.

Tangle and Whisper have kept quiet about what they saw to Lanolin, which Mimic/Duo seems to have picked up on, and appears to be attempting to use this information to drive a wedge between the Diamond Cutters and their leader. Meanwhile Tangle and Whisper have been trying to sort through things on their own, with the two of them making a couple observations to realize that there were, in fact, two Phantom Riders.

With this in mind, it looks like the two of them will be quietly looking into the matter on their own. I'm pretty sure they've largely pieced together that the second Rider is Mimic. If not, they'll have it worked out before long.

The reaction I find most interesting, though, is that of the Babylon Rogues.

Barely any time passes before, just using their heads, they work out almost exactly what's going on. And, while their motivation is entirely ego-centric, they resolve to uncover the foul play (heh) at hand and expose whoever's behind it. It's surprisingly cogent for them!

Then there's Clutch.

He's... upset. But of course. He's spent a good deal of effort to stay off Sonic's radar so he could avoid dealing with him until he was ready to do so. Now the world's greatest hero, who had no idea until recently that his operation even existed, is on his trail. One might understand why he's a touch unhappy. And honestly, I think the anger he shows here might be the most vicious side of Clutch we've seen. He doesn't normally have this much trouble maintaining his composure. It's interesting to see how badly he loses his cool when the house of cards he's built begins to tremble. I'm excited to see what the depths of that ferocity are in the upcoming issues.

Once again, the art, the writing, the plot, the colors, every aspect of this issue firmly slaps. I really, really enjoyed this arc, and I've become even more excited for upcoming material after finding out that every issue from 69 onward has been helmed solely by Evan! Not that I don't adore Ian and his writing, but if this is the standard we can expect when Evan gets to work on her own, I can hardly wait to see what she's cooking next. She certainly sounds eager for it, so I am, too!

Last thing to note, once again the fan mail section caught my attention, when at the very end, I noticed something:

They say that, next time, a "certain journalist" will get involved. The thing is, I'm really not sure who this could be. It sounds like it'd be an established character but... do we know any journalists in the Sonic franchise?

Maybe Omochao? Or Nite? They both work in TV and radio, but neither is really a journalist, per se.

The only actual reporter I can think of is Brenda Hernandez from Sonic Unleashed, but... she's a human! IDW has always appeared to be strictly forbidden from using human characters outside of Eggman. Though, a couple of them have been mentioned recently. To date, however, none have actually appeared. Could this be IDW finally shaking off some of SEGA's restrictions to play around with the bigger world a little bit? One can hope!

That's all I have to say on Issue 71, though, so as always, thanks a ton for reading all the way through, and keep an eye open for my 2024 Annual Review, as I hope to have it written and posted before Issue 72 drops later this week!

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: Here's one from N'Oni! "Stole this question from Rabbithaver: Which would you rather have as a pet for the BumbleKompound: a Chao with an unsettlingly realistic human face that likes to stare at you ominously, a Wisp with tiny and deeply unnerving human hands that must be moisturized daily, or a Koco with fleshy hyper-realistic human feet that really likes to run on hardwood?" [audibly trying not to laugh]

IAN FLYNN: The Wisp, without hesitation. KYLE: Really?! IAN: I will- I will buy the Wisp all the hand lotion it needs. It has perfectly capable hands, it can moisturize its own hands. They're smart! They're dexterous! It can handle itself. The Koco? That would just be annoying. A little unsettling, but annoying. The Chao? We were talkin' about Sega IPs earlier, all I'm imagining is a Seaman version of Chao. KYLE: [wheeze] That's what I said when N'Oni was drawing this! Because this has art! IAN: [unintelligible] Just kinda jump back at this Chao looks up at you and goes, [deep Seaman voice not unlike George Takei] "Hellew." KYLE: [laughing] Yeah, yeah. IAN: [continuing in Seaman voice] "You have been away from the BumbleOffices for three days." KYLE: I'm going... IAN: [continuing in Seaman voice] "Please, feed me a Chao Nut." Eugh, no! No no no no. KYLE: I'm going to show you this horrifying image, and it's probably also going to be this episode's thumbnail. Just so you know. IAN: [sigh that isn't as worried as it should be] Okay. Is this going to be in the chat or in the DMs? KYLE: I'm sending it to you as a DM. It's in the chat, but it'll get lost in there, so... or it's- yeah, it's already getting lost. So... check your DMs. IAN: [seeing the image] Oh, yeah, I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. That- the wisp is worse than I imagined. KYLE: Yeah. IAN: But I stand by my decision, 'cause it can moisturize its own hands. I don't have to deal with it. KYLE: [laughs] I feel like the Koco is the least cursed-looking one. IAN: That almost looks like... Kirby. KYLE: Kinda. IAN: Like, if Kirby took his shoes off. That's... that's gross, but not bad. But no, Chao Takei? Not- not handling it. KYLE: [laughing] The Chao is terrifying. Oh, boy. IAN: [in Seaman voice] "Welcome back." KYLE: [laughs] IAN: [in Seaman voice] "I require more trees for my Chao Garden. Thank you." KYLE: I- I- yes, thank... you... N'Oni... thank... you? I'm not sure if we should be thanking you or not. [laughs] Oh, terrifying.

--- 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! ----- Do you want a specific question transcribed and posted? Send the question and the episode date to my ask box! Or if you just want questions about a certain character, send me their name and I will see what I can do!

[jackpot-art-dude]

i did a thingy so yay!

my dnd character based off of mafuyu :)

also i got a new notebook so. everything will be on hello kitty paper for a while now

ANYWAYS

their name is myo (like, mAFUYU, yUKI, oWN)

and i was able to take most of the backstory stuff from SEGA so that's fun, only major difference is since discord doesn't exist i decided to have their changeling-ness do the "okay you have to gtfo of here" in the place of sekai.

their persona on the left (the o) is very kaito-y. they're the most recent of the personas to form (about a week before they ran away from home)

their persona on the right (the y) is pretty much the good girl persona like mafuyu has. it's like the second oldest next to og myo (the m) since it formed pretty early into middle school

all of the personas are technically the same person but they're distinct enough to be classified as separate beings

selûne is the hatsune miku to myo

also since they're a twilight domain cleric they just so happen to be proficient in heavy armor and martial weapons,, okay yes they can do archery but also

big heavy axe

swing swing

woaw cool yay

okay i don't know what else to say except i like them a lot

[kirstenonic05]

Schezo for Character Opinion Bingo!! I realize that everyone is very mixed about him, and I'm curious

To no one's surprise, I am very normal about him. Uh huh.

I would love to write up my thoughts on him, but I'm sure you're not here to see me write an essay on this guy!!!

Here, I'll put my thoughts under the read more!

Did you know I expected Satan to be my favourite Puyo character but Schezo invaded my brain after I listened to his song?

The Gorgeous Man who Defiled the God is one of my favourite songs of all time, and, in pure Kirsten fashion, I searched up this weird guy named "Schezo" who's name I could see was CLEARLY one letter away from being "Joke" in Italian (Scherzo, a musical term for "Playful" funnily enough). I expected a joke character, and came back with... decapitation. Awesome. What is Wrong with him. (And why does he share themes with my other decapitated son??? (Allen) First time my friends found out I liked Schezo and he was also decapitated everyone thought it was BECAUSE he was decapitated djdbkddnksm THAT WAS A COINCIDENCE)

And then uh. It went horribly downhill from there and I like him he's silly he needs a nice nap that doesn't last 100 years again. (Shin Madou.)

The story of how I found him and got dragged into Puyo is much longer than that, but let's not delve into that. XD

As a few people know, my favourite characters share one theme: They aren't as they seem. And with Schezo, that's the case as well; he's a powerful Dark Mage with a hardened exterior, but also thought to be a pervert due to his horrible way of speech. Yet, he's stupid dense (maybe even naive with the innuendos) and loves cute things. Heck, it's hinted that he even liked cute things/animals back in the Madou 123 era!

Actually, he's the most "evil" character I like! However, he's not the most violent (a 10 year old takes that title) and... actually he's pretty chill for a supposedly evil guy. I'd say he's like... an anti-hero? He definitely got character development if he went from "guy who kidnaps magic users and uses their dead bodies for a sick amalgamation" to "silly innuendo guy who loves cute things and chickens out of killing people (and sacrificing himself for people he thinks hate him)". As much as he says he will, I don't think he's taking Arle's power anytime soon.

Everyone's characterisations of Schezo are really different, and I think that's so awesome! They're not as varied as, say, Ragnus, but there's huge differences if the person only knows of Sega or if they also dabble in Compile. I tend to know more about Compile era than Sega era, so my Schezo tends to be a little colder to match that.

His story is also stupidly tragic. Local 14 year old who is doing too well in school gets kidnapped and cursed to become the Dark Mage. At least in Shin Madou he wants to become the Dark Mage at least...? Doesn't look like it in ARS though.

However, the Statue of the Hero he was supposed to see was a statue of Ragnus, and that makes me go insane everytime I think about it. Does he realise the random hero guy who turns into a child is the Hero his village looked up to???

My favourite design of him is actually Tower of the Magician, but thanks to bias, Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon is my second favourite design. Madou II rocks as well. Have you seen that guy's painted nails???

If you ever see me draw Schezo (once in a blue moon), you may notice that I give him shoulder pads. This is simply because I forget Sega Schezo does not have those and I like shoulder pads, kapeesh? (It's a mistake I constantly make dbdkdnsks whoopsie)

On the other hand, Saturn Schezo creeps me out. In my opinion, they got his personality very wrong. People have been telling me that he gets better after Ragnus gets his body back though! I really hope that's the case.

I'd say Schezo isn't bullied enough, but if Satan's not in the room he usually ends up as the butt of the jokes. And to that, I say, yes. Keep bullying him :) (But also. Sometimes he gets bullied too much.)

He also deserves a nice hot cup of milk and a pat on the back. Nothing goes right in this man's life I stg.

I rock with his aesthetic hard!!! I'm a sucker for astrology aesthetics (hence Moon for Allen, Stars/Sun for Joseph and Sonic, etc.) And Schezo has such a cool moon aesthetic he has going on!!!

For example, look at his Puyo Sun tarot card!

And even his belts in 15th anniversary have crescent moons on them!

In conclusion: He's so silly I love him :)

If you got this far, thank you for listening to my insane, shortened ramblings about Schezo Wegey.

[thankskenpenders]

At this point we're used to old Archie Sonic contributors trying to do their own thing with their old creations in the wake of the Penders lawsuits, since they're now legally free to do so. Most infamously we have Penders spending over a decade working on The Lara-Su Chronicles with his huge cast of Angel Island and Acorn Kingdom characters, and we also saw Scott Fulop briefly try to pitch Mammoth Mogul as a comic superstar in his own right

But for once, we now have a former writer tweeting about how he's actually totally game for Sega to do whatever with his most famous Sonic character. And its coming from one of the most minor contributors to Archie Sonic, who arguably went on to be the biggest name who ever touched the series

That's right: prolific Spider-Man writer Dan Slott is ready to bring back Zonic the Zone Cop

Zonic did have 1 gag going for him that I really liked. He was someone who maintained order across parallel worlds from the PERPENDICULAR dimension that ran thru all parallel dimensions. So he was always standing at a 90 degree angle from everyone else. (What was I smoking?) 🤷‍♂️

There's a Sonic creator who's super protective of all the characters he's created over the years to the point where SEGA doesn't want to use ANY of them in other media. I'm saying it here and now: I do NOT have that hangup with Zonic. SEGA, go to town! I am ready to play ball!

@SEGA, I am super-serious. I would be a dream to collaborate with. If you ever want to use Zonic The Zone Cop in a movie, cartoon, video game, breakfast cereal, you-name-it... the entire process would be headache free. It'd be smooth sailing the whole way. Call me. ☎

.@SEGA, I'm not kidding. It'd go something like this: SEGA: We want to use Zonic. ME: Sounds cool, Daddy-O. SEGA: We'll pay this reasonable amount as a consultant. ME: I'm in. SEGA: We want to give him human teeth. ME: Sounds nifty. SEGA: No. Wait. We don't. ME: All good, man.

Do I actually think this is going to happen? Fuck no. Never in a million years. I don't even know how serious Dan is being here despite the claims that he's actually super serious. He knows this is a silly minor character, even if there is, in fact, still a small subset of fans intrigued by the idea of an alternate universe Sonic who's an interdimensional cop. I just think it's funny that he even thinks about Zonic at all in a world where he wrote Spider-Verse

[zippy-reacts]

Sonic the Comic Liveblog: Issue 94

I really like this cover art! I can't put my finger on it, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi about this art that really identifies it as belonging to a British comic.

Oh okay, cover art was by Elson, explains why I liked it then. Anyway, we see once again that the price of StC is being raised. I've said before I feel StC is expensive, especially in comparison to late 2000s era Beano, but I suppose when you compare it to something more comtemporary like IDW Sonic it's a good price? Then again, who knows how it stacks up when you account for inflation. Annnnnd final note about this image - I wonder if that sonic spinner toy works like a fidget spinner?

It might be because this is a whole different planet from Mobius, but it feels really odd that we're seeing like… Disney-esque dog humans as secondary and background characters rather than more traditional anthromorphic animals.

Anyway, professor dude turned into reverse colour scheme Hulk. They're not even hiding it, his name is literally Bulk.

Ah yes, Sonic's "spin really really fast to solve any problem" tactic! Haven't seen that one in a good few issues.

Lol that's some pretty good snark.

Hey, that's pretty close to my main blog's URL!

Hmm. Starting to get Totally Spies vibes.

Nice monochrome colouring! And it's pretty interesting to see Vector characterised as being smart in this way, even if the explaination does sound like it fits right in with Classic era Doctor Who lmao

A review of Fighting Vipers, and look, there's Honey! I bet this reviewer never would've guessed that character with later be connected to the Sonic series

Ooooooh! Did not expect to be introduced to Ebony and Pyjamas today! I am quite aware these two are fan-favourites. Btw, I'm loving that outfit Ebony is wearing, never seen art of her wearing anything modern and casual like that before.

Ok! I guess she can change her outfit instantly! But man, I can already see that people must've fallen in love with this character quickly, just this one panel is great show of personality.

You have my heart, Ms Ebony <3

I haven't really brought it up much, but for a good while by this point, StC has become more or less just a Sonic comic (jeez, who would imagine considering it's name). The only other Sega comics they do anymore is the occassional run of Decap Attack comics. I guess out of all of them this one must've been a favourite among readers.

I about to make a joke sugguesting Johnny's drink is alcoholic, but I wonder how old he actually is? Legal drinking age is 18 so he could potentially be old enough? But even if he wasn't, the UK is not exactly know for having teenagers who always follow drinking laws.

Gonna file this one under "sentences that sound a lot more racist if we weren't talking about animals"

It's kinda funny that Knuckles just like… randomly has a pet dinosaur now. …oh my god this issue is from 1997 so means Underground (released 1999) wasn't the first one to give him a dinosaur for no reason.

You know what mate? I'd be pissed off too.

A third of the back page which is otherwise dedicated to reminding you when the next issue releases? oh god yeah, such a waste of space. Totally unbelivable. 🙄

The word of a kid who probably also enjoys burning ants under a magnifying glass.