#spud's inbox

[ninjapotatohead]

You think the games are better? Show me a scene on par with those pages of Sonic putting his imposter in his proper place.

You say that like it's some high bar to clear. It's really not.

Shadow telling Mephiles to shut the fuck up

Now, with the infinitely better green rival this time

Sonic being a snarky bastard in the face of adversity

Sonic being a snarky bastard in the face of adversity... IN SPACE!

Tails Adventure, just in general

The list goes on and on and on.

[ninjapotatohead]

Lol, Sheeptits McGee is just as good as Sally Sheeples. XD I've only nicknamed her that due to as to who the former Archie writers are clearly trying to emulate with her bossy to short-sighted dipshittery. But you, nah you just go for the jugular because of her big boobs. Respect B)

Yeah, throughout all the social media posts and tangents defending (read: "white-knighting") her that all sound like the insane ramblings of a madman, the only consistent thread connecting them all is that they tend to be from Rule 34 artists/creators and other NSFW accounts praising her for - what else? - her prominent bust size and tyrannical bitchiness.

And, I've said this before, but it bears repeating, they always bemoan her detractors with some variation of "... But we NEEEEED more bitchy queens because Sonic's NEVER done rude characters before, and we've NEVER gotten a character like dommy-mommy sheep girl before!"

... y'know, if we ignore that

A) Silver had his backbone completely removed, even though he himself was, in fact, kind of an asshole in the games.

and B) Wave is literally RIGHT THERE!

And I always bring her up specifically because she's literally Lanolin's character archetype but significantly better-written. Not only is she just as rude and catty as Lanolin (supposedly) is, but Wave at least has the competence and years of experience to back it up. Wave doesn't just talk the talk, she's more than capable of walking the walk; she's every bit as intelligent as she claims.

Also helps that Wave is... y'know, a rival character? She serves as the foil for Tails (as do the rest of the Babylon Rogues for the other two members of Team Sonic). Even despite this (as @beevean pointed out previously), it's still believable that her and the other two rogues are still friends, or at least have some degree of mutual respect for the other.

Sheep-Tits McGee, on the other hand, doesn't even have that going for her. She's little more than a rookie who was put into a leadership position (that she did nothing to earn) and does little more than bully literal war veterans into submission just to feel better about herself.

It's even funnier when you consider that the Eggperial City arc has shown multiple times that the conflict resolves itself when the others DON'T follow her orders, because all she does is make matters worse.

Of course, none of that matters because her more ardent fans defend her and ignore any and all criticism of her. They just think her YouTuber Apology™ is enough to absolve her for no other reason than...

Which, unsurprisingly, has earned her the moniker I continue to give her.

[ninjapotatohead]

Not really? The level design, characterization and dialogue are way better in the superior and far less clingy (DS) version.

2D Game, and Pontaff wrote the DS version as well.

Speaking as someone who's played both the Wii and DS versions... mich like Unleashed, Sonic's friends showing up in the handheld version did NOT contribute anything meaningful to the overall plot at all. Storywise, the only difference is that, once again, Super Sonic is relegated to a purely final boss encounter.

Also, the console version has Eggman's PA announcements. That alone makes it superior. I don't make the rules.

[ninjapotatohead]

Copium is thinking the games hold a candle to the better written comics, hopium is hoping the better stuff will be canned. Move on to nopium and accept reality!

Copium is thinking that the comics are in any way more popular than the games they're based on when IDW Publishing is in such dire financial straits (to the point where their stock market is in the toilet) all because you've never played said games.

Copium is thinking that a series of comics from a company that is literally bleeding money holds a candle to the games they're literally based on purely because you've never played any of them.

Copium is thinking that the folks developing the games are somehow worse people than the staff of said company who have laid off several employees to line their own pockets like their names are "Bobby Kotick" because you've never played the games.

The only person who's on copium and needs to "accept reality" is you.

[ninjapotatohead]

Pontaff are GONE, at the very least you should be thankful for their influence being diminished.

Except I'm not thankful for anything that came about because they left. I have no reason to be.

I'm not thankful for the people who treated them (and Iizuka) like subhuman purely because of their writing or overall presence in the franchise not being what the fans delude themselves into thinking the franchise "should be".

I'm not thankful for the pitiful members of this fandom for sending them literal threats of violence to the point of them literally fearing for their lives.

I'm not thankful for how egregiously poor quality the officially licensed encyclopedia for the entire franchise turned out.

I'm not thankful for the inflated egos of the folks involved with a comic run by a publishing company that is literally bleeding money.

I'm not thankful for the hive-minded and whingy fans permeating pretty much any and all discussion about the franchise, let alone them being so desperate for Sonic Frontiers to win a damned awards show that they resort to slitting their wrists and sending photos to the host of the event.

I'm not thankful for the franchise turning out even more meta than the supposed "Meta Era" only for the fans to eat it up despite their previous claims of not liking the franchise being tongue-in-cheek (even though the franchise was always tongue-in-cheek)

I'm not thankful for the mediocre slog that is Sonic Prime getting greenlit.

I'm not thankful for the voice actors getting harassed and shoved around by stupid fans who know nothing about the voice acting industry OR the craft itself when (most of them) have done nothing wrong.

And why SHOULD I be?

[ninjapotatohead]

It gets me people thought Shadow can ask other Sonic chars about his past when his game came out

What, that he committed war crimes out of misled revenge? It doesn't really address anything. Nor did they personally witness the massacre 50 years ago

For whether he's the original or not, Rouge doesn't know, Omega is just "yeah there might be the OG to ref, but I dunno", no one else even is aware of the androids, and Shadow literally sees the Shad Androids after the Egg Albatross fight smashed. He literally won't learn anything besides "oh no, I might be fake"

The only person he can learn shit from is Eggman, but uh, good luck there, that evil dipshit isn't gonna squeal. He didn't in the endings. Even in Last Story it's a last minute ultimatum of dying strictly to motivate Shadow. And it's a verrrry delayed Easter egg

The fandom weirdly acts like it's no biggie to get answers entirely cuz they ignore that meta does not mean that other chars automatically will know shit

Same for weirdly ignoring he moved on. I've seen people deadass say he should've time traveled in 06 to save Maria. Like why, Mephiles is the way bigger priority, regardless how sloppy he's handled

I blame X's dumbass way of handling the amnesia. Literally made "Maria" a trigger word

And no, 4Kids didn't BS this scene, it's straight up that memetic

People really out here forgetting that the only people that know anything about Shadow's past and the reason for his creation... don't actually have the best intentions, to put it mildly.

• Dr. Eggman? Like you said, he knows, but he'd sooner take it to the grave than just politely tell Shadow anything (unless Shadow helps Eggman somehow).

• Black Doom? Also, not a reliable narrator. The dude holds the idea of giving the answers that Shadow is chasing like a carrot on a stick, and even then, only delivers in the form of half-truths; all to essentially coax him into giving him the Chaos Emeralds.

• The GUN Commander? That man's the textbook definition of "Revenge Before Reason." He hates Shadow's fucking guts because he blames him for GUN (the very organization that he's apparently in charge of) raiding the ARK one fateful day; so much so that he was perfectly willing to use Shadow as a scapegoat, and even thought that using a regular ass pistol against a speedy talking hedgehog was a good idea.

Yeah, it's not as simple as "just ask ANYONE ELSE"

[ninjapotatohead]

Eggman's only function is to be a deus ex machina for this arc. He showed up at the diner just to provide a solution to Sonic and co.'s problem of sneaking aboard the Restoration shuttle, and he only reappears to whisk Clutch away.

IIRC a ScreenRant writer noted that IDW!Eggman only seemed to throw hands with other villains but not Sonic. Ofc, they then tried to imply this made Eggman a lesser villain 🙄

That's when I realized IDW!Eggman has no character. Ever since the metal virus arc, the book has treated him more like a force of nature than a character with goals and agency. You could literally replace Eggman with a gust of wind and the impact on the narrative would be the same.

I certainly wouldn't expect any less from a comic universe where Eggman neglects to make a cure for his "ultra-badass super virus" and gets all "surprised Pikachu" when it inevitably backfires (which is hilariously out-of-character, especially in a post-Forces world).

I wouldn't even be against the idea of Eggman being a force of nature if it were building up to something grand.... but this is the IDWverse, so the payoff would've just been weak anyway.

[ninjapotatohead]

Sonic, Tails and Amy when discussing how to get to the Restoration shuttle:

Sonic, Tails and Amy when they need to hijack the President's limo, even though all three are wanted by the police:

What I find funny about the Phantom Rider arc is that the entire premise depends on the three doing everything in their power to avoid taking the obvious option.

In the games, they would have just flown up to the shuttle in the Tornado cuz fuck Lanolin the police. But here they've randomly decided they can't because Plot Reasons(tm). Ohh the security guards won't let us through. Ohh the race will be ruined if we do that. Ohh but we'll wind up trashing the shuttle (assuming Sonic and co. aren't capable of stealth; Pyramid Base says hi).

And I'm like? Stuff like this never stopped you before, why do you guys care now all of a sudden?

Maybe Lanolin chewing them out really did get to them. Or maybe they're just OOC for sake of the plot.

In any case, I don't believe the characters who pussyfoot to the point of needing Eggman to solve their self-imposed dilemma are also the same characters who nonchalantly hack into the government mainframe because they need to know Eggman's whereabouts.

🎵 "It's beginning to look a lot like BAD WRITING...

...with EVERY PAGE YOU TURN!

All so rife with fake tension. Terrible leaders? No objection!

These drafts they all approved of should be BURNED!" 🎶

[ninjapotatohead]

idk but removing Maria being sick felt stupid, the movie had again lots of cringe jokes, there are tones of kids movies that were released this year with better jokes and writing, like I laughed more at Trolls 3, my friend was cringing at the restaurant scene, the after credits scene was ugh. I got Sonic prime vibes all over again. It’s not the worst movie but it honestly feels very shallow

See, the reason I'm far more willing to give the Sonic movies a much bigger pass as opposed to something like Sonic Prime or the IDWverse is because the films are pretty obviously not connected to the games whatsoever. I know for a fact that we're not supposed to equate the film's version of Sonic's world as being 1-to-1 to SEGA's.

That said, I do completely understand why people would balk at the idea of the films doing away with elements from the games (hell, I certainly have my gripes with the films as well; Movie 3 included)

[ninjapotatohead]

https://x.com/Blueknight_V2/status/1803927166083829937 https://x.com/The14thDemon/status/1803619577596629442

daniel barnes rt this, what the hell?

How long were these people asleep at the wheel when literally every Sonic writer not named "Shiro Maekawa" was getting the same kind of unwarranted flak?

[ninjapotatohead]

I’m sorry, what the FUCK do you mean sonic fans slit their wrists to Geoff for frontiers to win an award?! Is that real?! Source?!?

Wasn't Geoff who responded to it, but yeah, people associated with him and anyone in charge of the game awards were treated to at least one Sonic fan who was so desperate for Frontiers to win the 2022 Game Awards show (and was apparently so butthurt about it NOT winning).

[ninjapotatohead]

personally if the story sucks I don’t feel like to keep playing, I kinda keep playing a game because I want to know what happens next and I think good stories impacted me more as a person then good gameplay

It literally doesn't matter if the story is the most spectacular thing in the universe; it utterly fails as a game if the gameplay is shit.

If you're playing a shit game for the story, you can get an infinitely better experience bu just watching a playthrough or a cutscene compilation on YouTube, and that doesn't bode well for the game as a whole.

[ninjapotatohead]

People: waaahhh pontac was a meanie

He didn't even say anything that bad!

Exactly!

He was much more cordial and level-headed than people give him credit for... unlike Evan Stanley

[ninjapotatohead]

I'm one of the people that wanted to give flynn a chance after being sick and tired of the shit Pontac wrote. Flynn blew it too, my question is why are so many people complaning about Sonic's current mediocrity and not jumping ship to a better franchise all together? Why are people hurting themselves lmao

Believe it or not, while I was in no way bothered by Pontaff's tenure on the series (due in no small part to having accepted the fact that Sonic storytelling has always been wonky-at-best), I was looking forward to seeing what Ian had to bring to the table.

And, while you could never pay me to give enough of a shit about the Archie comics to read all 290 issues front-to-back, I used to be in full support of the IDWverse back when it was new. Any real gripes I had with it at the time was stuff I was more than willing to look past, since I figured I could excuse a few oddities if the comic is doing its own thing separately from the games...

But then, Issue #12 happened, the Zombot Virus arc went on for WAY too long, characters acted less and less like themselves, the writing felt so tongue-in-cheek that it made Lego Dimensions shake its head in disappointment, every critique of Ian's questionable writing decisions were either deflected or just half-heartedly addressed, IDW Publishing started bleeding money, and it overall just felt like a slow and grueling death by a thousand paper cuts.

Oh right, and the Sonic Encyclospeedia being of such shit quality didn't help either.

So yeah, is it any wonder why I (and others) lacked confidence that Frontiers' plot would be of any substance when it was announced Ian was tasked with writing it, especially given his track record?

[ninjapotatohead]

Sonk the hedge

[ninjapotatohead]

Why do you even like sonic if the games suck and you don't like the comics?