#Second favorite arc in all IDW

[fowlaroundtown]

May I request a doodle of these two homoromamtic meat heads?

OF FREAKING COURSE YOU CAN

I hope you don’t mind!!! Took some creative liberties with the designs UwU

Bonus:

[e-vay]

Hello! I'm a Brazilian fan and I love your work so much! Congratulations on that! I'd like to ask you what's the best Sonamy fanfic you've ever read and what's the best you've ever done in your opinion? It's okay if it's in English and I'm sorry if I wrote something wrong, I'm still not a professional in the language ❤️

I get a lot of fanfic questions so I figured I'd lump them all together here. Also, @blsantos your English is great, please don't apologize :) Honestly, some of the best fanfics I've ever read are sent to me as recommendations anonymously. So please, always send me your recs!

On that note, I want to specifically send 1,000 kisses to the anon above who recommended "I Love You - Come With Me" by @molinaskies

"I Love You - Come With Me" by @molinaskies was one of those stories where I wasn't sure what to expect, but as soon as I started reading it I PHYSICALLY COULD NOT STOP until I finished it. It has not only romantic love but self love. It's healing and cathartic. The author nailed the intricacies of Sonic's and Amy's characters.

"Subliminal" by @maddiebat takes place post-Sonic Frontiers and ahhh it just makes my heart explode. I can see this fic actually happening in canon! It will pull on your heart strings, I guarantee it.

"Late Night Talks" by @luescris takes place during the Metal Virus arc of the IDW comics. I haven't read the comics yet but I was aware of that arc enough for this story to make sense. I loooooove touch-starved themes and this fic really hit it outta the park!

"Birthday Surprise" by Shteph is a BLAST! It's a one-shot but it is filled with tons of great moments and humor and romance. There are scenes in this fic that legitimately gave me butterflies and had me kicking my feet and squealing 🥰

If you haven't read "What Was Stolen" by @beeextraordinary123 you are DEPRIVING YOURSELF! For the love of all that is good, go read it! If you aren't aware of it, it's an AU where Amy is a princess who meets a dashing blue thief 😉 It's full of all the delicious angst you could ever want with tons of romance and fantastic character exploration. I've physically sobbed over this story.

If you're looking for something short and sweet, check out "Late Night Texts" by @paddy-nic. It's one of those stories that gives me second-hand giddyness.

These are just some of the fics that have been on my mind recently and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! And again, please always send me recommendations. I'm always looking for good sonamy fics. I live and breathe for these cotton-candy dorks.

-

As far as my own fics, I write a lot but I don't post much of what I've written. Of the fics I have posted so far, my favorite is Bubbles and Blush. There's no drama, it's just slice of life with pre-established sonamy and LOTS of lovin'. I had a whole lotta fun with that one!

Also for those interested, I am on AO3!

[saxandviolins88]

Transformers Skybound #11 spoilers below cut

New Skybound issue dropped and some very interesting things happened, some very questionable things too, so let's get going! (don't forget to leave a like, subscribe, and HIT THAT BELL)

He's so cool... I love you, Beachcomber...

oof! uh... okay?

I think we all have seen this scene since last month, but I held off commenting anything about it until I could read the whole thing, and uh... Do the only two female Autobots need to fight each other?

Okay okay! With the additional context, it's a little more excusable, definitely weird, but explainable. It lines with the characters DWJ is setting up - Elita is bitter and traumatized and dealing with it by throwing her anger at people. Arcee is relapsing into violence and anger(despite all she taught Carly, which was pointed out!).

Yes!! More hard decisions for OP!

I really really do enjoy OP as this emotional leader that follows his heart rather than his mind, further down we'll see how his decision to listen to UM paid off.

How many times have we seen Soundwave dragging Ravage's limp body around? At this point, it does feel like DWJ is wanting to give SW more brownie points than necessary.

I do hope there's some sort of payoff to this, but most likely it won't. Honestly, if Ravage becomes a recurring character I'll be content already.

Some people already wrote about Soundwave's natural follower tendencies, but I so much enjoy Shockwave's awful leader tendencies, like I genuinely believe people just follow this bitch because no one else wants to step up lmao, this guy is so fucking bad it's hilarious.

More bitter Elita-1.

I really want to see a more vulnerable side of her, I don't need her to cry and wail, but I'd like for her to see eye-to-eye with OP. I'd just enjoy it if they resolved this and saw each other's perspective on the issue, both do have a point and both are very traumatized.

(No complaints about the 'female=hysterical' action comic problem since Elita-1 was actually shown as competent and equal to Prime, but I did feel the need to point this out)

Wow, I love visual leitmotifs! I do remember this scene.

Lol, I have to be a dick at least once.

But yeah. nice show-don't-tell... Are Beachcomber and Spike about to be the heroes of this arc? God I'd really enjoy that.

JAZZ IS ALIVE!!!

I love Jazz, he's the coolest guy ever!

Please, I really hope DWJ uses him, if you aren't gonna kill him for shock(lol) value at least write a character for him.

IDW ARCEE? ON MY SKYBOUND COMIC?

joke joke!

I really enjoyed this! Arcee relapsing into her vengeful tendencies does wonder to give some three-dimensionality to her. They're in war, and everybody is traumatized, so it makes total sense.

I'm more interested in the 'after', I hope we get more exploration of her as a character and this isn't just a throw-away thing for the second arc.

...

...

I'm happy 🙂.

(LOL, imagine the 'Structies were having their coffee break and they just went: "What does this guy want now?!🙄")

Devastador, meu filho de cem metros.

Lol, Elita-1's reaction is gold, like: "Fuckin' Decepticons and their fuckin' combiners."

These might just be my favorite moment of this whole ass comic book.

JUST. WOW. I felt my guts moving reading this moment, I felt what UM was feeling.

What can I say? I love heroes with PTSD in action genres!

I also adored how this harkens back to the start of this issue and OP's decision.

(I hope they don't pull a: "ULTRA MAGNUS GOT OVER HIS PANSY ASS FEAR AFTER A PEP TALK AND NOW HE'S BADASS AGAIN.")

I love Devastator's expression here. He's just: 😐

(Yep, I'm really chewing on this bone DWJ threw at me)

[thankskenpenders]

How do you feel on the whole Misadventures arc of IDW? You touched upon it briefly, but I'm still curious. I myself found it frustrating since I despise "everyone trusts the newbie first" plotlines, and TBH "Silver and Whisper just stake out Duo and then attack him once confronted" felt like a frustratingly stupid way to resolve things. The pacing of the four issues, with how it felt like little happened, honestly made it feel like a collection of stories meant for an Annual that never came out.

I disagree. For one, I've found the pacing really refreshing. Even though this is a "breather" arc after all the stuff with Surge and Kit and the Eggperial City, it feels like we've had a lot of meaningful developments for the supporting cast in a short amount of time. Instead of spending 4+ months exclusively on one idea and one set of characters, we're hopping all around and getting these shorter stories from a wider variety of characters. But they all feel connected, primarily due to the background plot of Clutch and Mimic trying to undermine the Restoration. It feels like a whole lot of pieces are being moved into place for whatever's in store, whether it's getting Knuckles off of Angel Island more, having Silver and Blaze finally become a team, or establishing new threats for the Restoration.

And, yes, I'm even here for the silly backup story about Rough and Tumble messing up Cream's house. That stuff's fun! I've never been a person who thinks that everything has to be plot, plot, plot all the time. I love heavily episodic series. I like seeing what happens when you mash together random characters who haven't interacted before.

I kind of see why this might feel like the sort of material that's usually saved for the Annuals, but his was the norm during the Archie days. We didn't have Annuals, we'd just have backup stories about the supporting cast, or one-off issues that weren't necessarily part of a four-issue arc. That's something people have been interested in seeing from IDW from the very start, and folks like me were excited to see them finally give it a shot.

As for the stuff with Mimic/Duo: that's actually been my favorite part of all of this. I think it's made for some extremely juicy drama. Yes, it's a story about a suspicious new character showing up and people immediately trusting him, but, like... forget about the trope for a second and step back. This is just how the Restoration works. They aren't an exclusive club, they're a humanitarian volunteer group that's constantly welcoming in any help they can get. Every new character who decides to join the Restoration has immediately been welcomed in. The HQ is constantly full of randos. Amy put Jewel in charge of the whole operation after one conversation. Lanolin in particular has barely known Tangle, Whisper, or Silver any longer than she's known "Duo." She went on literally one mission with Tangle and Whisper before all this. The villains are observing the way the heroes work and taking advantage of it.

I also disagree with the claim that Whisper and Silver were being stupid in trying to confront Mimic. Well, okay, they kind of were being stupid, but it feels completely in character for them. Silver's always been a little too eager to act without thinking first. This is one of his defining character traits going back to '06. The irony here is that for once he was RIGHT, but the villain he accused of being a villain made him think it was just another case of Silver starting a fight for no good reason. And Whisper's acting rash because she ALWAYS acts rash when Mimic is involved. Any time Mimic has been a threat, Whisper has decided to go all lone wolf out of a fear that Mimic will kill Tangle like he killed the old Diamond Cutters. It's a constant struggle for her due to how deep that trauma is. It was the whole premise of the Tangle and Whisper miniseries!

But really, I just think it's so deliciously evil for Mimic to be playing the Restoration like this for so long. To me, it'd be a crime NOT to do something like this with Mimic. It's such a perfect use of his nature as a deceitful master of disguise. Whisper IMMEDIATELY figuring him out, only for Mimic to pit Whisper's allies against her, gaslighting her into trusting him and thinking that she fucked up? That's great! Well, I mean, it's terrible for her, but I'm here for the drama.

This is all a ticking time bomb that's going to impact so many characters when it goes off, and I can't wait to see how that plays out. How much damage will Mimic and Clutch be able to do to the Restoration as an organization? How will Lanolin react upon realizing her grave mistake? How will Whisper, a character who already has massive trust issues, respond to having some of her worst fears come true? She already left Restoration HQ once out of a fear that Mimic would target her friends, and then almost immediately after coming back THIS happens? How will Tangle respond to being caught in the middle of all this? And now Surge and Kit are apparently getting thrown into the mix as unexpected wild cards next issue??? This is the kind of drama I really eat up with these characters!

(If I have ONE small nitpick, though... it's that I initially misread the issue with the confrontation, and thought that Mimic really did break his own arm in his fight with Silver to help maintain his cover. I was like, holy shit! That's messed up! Mimic's messed up! But then I realized he was faking his injury. I kinda like my initial read better, but it's, you know. A kid's comic. That probably would have been a bridge too far lmao)

[blighted-lights]

because of course im gonna ask: first aid? —cmofirstaid

(Based off of this post! TFP Soundwave, IDW Sunstreaker, IDW First Aid, IDW Ravage, and IDW Cosmos have all been asked for! Feel free to send in an ask for any character that isn't one of these five 🌸❗️Not limited to followers or mutuals, so go wild!)

First Impression: Oh shit, First Aid! I read MTMTE before I read most of IDW, and I was fucking stoked to see him appear in the Delphi arc- ESPECIALLY with how he was introduced with his report that doubled as the issue's intro narration. Aside from that, though, I didn't focus on him much during my first read-through. Pharma and Ambulon immediately stole the show away from him, and it wasn't until my second read a few months later that I really focused on Aid. Aside from being happy to see him, I LOVED how he was drawn in MTMTE. He's always been cute, but something with how he was drawn in the first half of MTMTE really cemented for me that he has one of the best designs. He somehow manages to be boxy and round at the same time and I love him for it.

Impression Now: You are ENTIERLY responsible for how much First Aid means to me now, I hope you know this. One of my top ten IDW faves. His design remains one of my favorites, and I wish we got more canon content digging into his POV of things pre-mutiny. I wish he stayed on the Lost Light instead of being called away, too! There is so much focus on Ratchet passing over the title of CMO to First Aid, but then Aid leaves so quickly after. Idk, I wish we just got to see him more pre-mutiny. Aid is such a tragic character to me but he's another background tragedy and it makes me want to shake my screen a bit when I think about him. A somewhat vaguely odd thing to say, but I wish we got to see more of First Aid's grief over Ambulon and his feelings towards Pharma. Honestly I wished we got to see more interactions between Aid and the rest of the medical cast in general- including Ratchet, Velocity (ESPECIALLY Lotty (is not biased)), and Rung.

Favorite Moment: Speaking of Pharma, my favorite moment of First Aid is this one right here:

I think Aid should be shown like this more often. I NEED him to be angry. I need him to be murderous. As a treat for myself. I hate the idea in media where the good guys refuse to kill a villain because they'd be "letting the villain win". It's good to see that narrative challenged by Aid here.

... Even if the consequences aren't easily forgotten.

Idea for a Story: Someone put First Aid and Rung into a therapy appointment, I need to pick their interactions apart under a microscope. I do not thing going to Rung would be able to help Aid. In fact, it might just make an already shitty situation worse. But I want to see First Aid sit down and talk about what he is experiencing. And maybe I want to see Rung unintentionally making his grieving process more difficult. We already know from Rung's own admission in Lost Light that he does not know who he is without his patients. He banks his entire identity and self-worth on trying to assist other people. But what happens when nothing he does seems to help First Aid, and therefore his own self-image begins to crumble for it? How does his own perceived failings affect his treatment of First Aid?

Unpopular Opinion: 🤔 Not sure if I have one. I'm allergic to the idea of Aid being really nice and nervous 100% of the time, ig. All things considered, the First Aid we have in IDW isn't nervous at all. But I don't actually know how prevalent this is in fandom or if this is even an unpopular take 🤷‍♂️.

Favorite Relationship: Canon-wise? It's a toss up between him and Ambulon and then him and Ratchet. It is devastating how hard Aid takes Ambulon's death, and his desperation to help save Ambulon when Ratchet wouldn't let him was heartbreaking to read. At the same time, I NEED more of First Aid and Ratchet arguing with each other and Aid calling Ratchet out on his bullshit. It is rare that anyone steps up to Ratchet like that and succeeds in affecting him. I would like more, thanks.

Non-canon relationships? Another toss-up between Velocity and Ravage. Put these three in a blunt rotation, I'm sure they'll be fine.

Favorite Headcanon: First Aid is extremely tactile. There is not a word or phrase that could properly describe how touchy First Aid is. He has the capability to turn someone who is touch-starved to touched-out in the span of thirty minutes. While this is in part due to just him being an affectionate person in general (or at the very least, more physically affectionate than most other Autobots), it is also partially because of his intense focus on Autobot brands. He is so used to checking everyone he comes across for their brands in the case that they might have a bullet shot through them that the process of checking someone over is compulsive. This extends to people who fall outside of the Autobot ranks who do not even have brands, like Ravage, Cyclonus, and Ten. It's earned him more than a few strange looks and awkward silences over the course of being on the Lost Light.

[i-am-a-living-god]

87 Raph is your fav I get that he’s hilarious. I am curious about your opinion what your general thoughts on other iterations of him?

Omg I love all Raphs!

03 Raph is super fun, I love how his anger is handled. And he's such a chill Raph. Though I am a bit sad that he got his entire arc in the first season and got a bit sidelined after that.

12 Raph is also super fun, he's my second favorite 2012 character, (after Leo, sorry Raph.) I love how short tempered he is. He's actually the voice of reason in most cases, which is really interesting to me.

Idw Raph is just awesome, I don't really have much to say considering I only read the first 2 volumes. He has a strong sense of justice, and strives to do the right thing. He's figuring everything out, he has a family, and he's so stoked about it. He's just such a happy Raph. And I loveee how his anger is a parallel to splinters. Something that's unique to him specifically is that he only really gets angry when he defends his friends and family. His anger is very much tied to his sense of justice.

Other Raphs usually get angry when they feel mocked or inferior, but idw only really gets properly angry when his family is getting hurt. I'm specifically thinking about when he tried to murder Casey's dad and splinter adopted Casey. That was probably one of my favorite idw scenes, when splinter held a weapon to Casey's dad's throat, almost killing the man just to bring Raph to his sense's. The running theme of Raph being the most like splinter is so fucking interesting to me.

The thing about 12 Raph is that he's exclusively angry when he feels inferior, or mocked. Whenever his bros are in danger he doesn't tend to get angry. He usually gets really worried and concerned. Sometimes he even freezes up.

2012 Raph is constantly frustrated, and he doesn't know how to express those emotions in any way besides anger. And when he does lash out he's told to suppress his emotions, leading to bigger outbursts later on.

12 splinter has very weird ideas of how to raise children, an it makes sense considering how he was raised. But I feel like it's quite damaging to Raph and Mikey specifically. (I won't be talking about Mikey, this is about Raph.)

Raph doesn't have a healthy way of dealing with his frustrations, so he channels it through anger. And the only advice he gets about his anger is suppress it more. Which doesn't work cause he isn't just angry all the time, anger it just a blanket covering up what he's actually feeling.

I don't have anything to say about Bay Raph. Hes got no thoughts, brain empty.

I don't have the energy to dissect 07 Raph.

I don't really have much to say about rise Raph, the fandom has already said anything I could possibly say about him. Idk he's nice I guess, I do like him a lot, I just take him at face value. I haven't watched the show in a long time, though I remember that I really liked him while I was watching.

I won't mention 87 Raph cause you asked about everyone except for him :3

[electronickingdomfox]

TOS comics ranking

At this point, I've read all the TOS comics out there (or almost), so this is my personal veredict, from best series to worst:

DC comics

The best by a long shot imo. Also the longest running series. Set mostly after The Search for Spock (vol. 1) and The Final Frontier (vol. 2). The following are my favorites.

From Volume 1:

-The Mirror Universe saga (issues 9-16) by Mike W. Barr: It becomes a bit of "star wars, phaser pew pew" in the second half, but still pretty entertaining.

-The first Annual, also by Barr.

-Double Blind and The Last Word (issues 24-25 and 28) by Diane Duane: The first one is hilarious, while the second is pretty moving and spones-coded.

-The Paradise Lost saga (issues 43-45) by Michael Carlin: A payback for The Apple episode.

-The Dante's Inferno/Death of James Kirk saga (issues 48-55) by Peter David.

From Volume 2:

-The Trial of James T. Kirk saga (issues 1-12) by Peter David: The humor is overdone at times, but this author brings a unique freshness and originality to the series. The trial itself is absolutely hilarious, specially when the gangsters from A Piece of the Action show up as surprise witnesses.

-Once a Hero (issue 19) by Peter David: Kirk has to conduct a memorial for the redshirt that just died protecting him, and he finds out he doesn't know anything about the man. Brutal, honest, and has one of Jim's best speeches ever.

-The Class Reunion saga (issues 25-28), The Tabukan Syndrome (issues 35-40), A Little Adventure (issues 42-43) and the Time Crime saga (issues 53-57), all by Howard Weinstein.

-The Alone (issues 62-63) by Kevin Ryan.

2. Wildstorm

Only two TOS comics from this publisher (actually a branch of DC if I'm not mistaken): All of Me and Enter the Wolves. Both are pretty good.

3. IDW

I haven't read all of them, since some series focus on characters I don't care much about, like Gary Seven or Number One. From those I've read, the ones I liked the most were New Visions (made with photo montages from the series), Hell's Mirror and Mirror Images (both set, of course, in the mirror universe), Echoes (set in the TMP era) and The Primate Directive (a crossover with Planet of the Apes).

4. The Tokyopop mangas

There are three volumes. Some stories are fine, others are meh! Perhaps the second volume was the best.

5. The UK comics

Do they have a lot to do with TOS? No. The authors were not really familiar with the series. But they're bizarre, fun and have pretty art.

6. The newspaper comics

Some of the first story arcs were quite good, though it lost quality over time, specially in the art department. Set in the TMP era.

7. Marvel second series

Consisting of the Unlimited and Untold Voyages series, as well as a mirror universe one-shot and a crossover with X-Men. Rather generic. Haven't read the Early Voyages series, focused on Pike.

8. Marvel first series

These are quite bad. Set in TMP era.

9. Gold Key comics

Some stories are imaginative, but they could be about any characters instead of Star Trek and it'd be the same. This is a problem with the UK comics as well, but somehow I enjoyed the others much more.

[hishighnesstheprincess]

MY HATER POST

literally made a hater post just to talk about stuff in the sonic series that I dont like ❤️ if you don't like this post then fuck you block and/or blow me. this is disorganized as fuck btw and i dont care

sonic frontiers was the best mainline sonic game in over a decade but thats really not saying much

i think tangle is kinda boring and whispangle is kinda boring by proxy. whispers cool tho

surge is the best rival sonic character since blaze and the only thing dragging her down is that sonic in the idw comics kinda sucks as a character

its great that we are getting more female characters in idw and the games but quite a lot of them are kinda boring and we still need more female villains

metal sonic is basically nothing but a jobber in idw rn and its really depressing

idw please treat the babylon rogues better, theyre goofy characters with serious storylines just like basically every other sonic character, stop making them NOTHING but a joke

lanolin is an interesting character, yall just cant handle women who are even SLIGHTLY rude to a fan favorite character

the worst part of idw is that its tied to game canon because they cant shake up the status quo too much or have character arcs for most of the main characters

rouge is ABSOLUTELY a sexualized character and always has been. learn to like a character despite the faults in how they are portrayed or shut up about it

sally was the best canon romantic partner for sonic and you cant change my mind

the second worst part of idw is the titular character himself

i dislike surg/amy because of the age difference andalso the fact that everyone wants to disregard surges character to have her be redeemed

if sega is going to keep teasing son/amy then they should just stop dancing around it and make them canon already, make the shippers happy and get the drawn out agony over with for the rest of us. also age amy up for the love of allthat is holy

also, sega should stop ship teasing ships they have no intention of making canon in general, its shitty and edges into queerbaiting when done with gay ships

the above does not apply to whispangle

idw art is overall much much MUCH better than any other sonic comic and its not even a contest

there are a lot of things i disagree with about the current state and direction of this franchise but we are in a much better place than we were even just two years ago and we should be glad for all this success

the worst parts of archie are the most atrocious things that this franchise has ever put out, in art, storytelling, basic morality, etc.

most of the popular ships in this fandom suck ass

unless sega stops rushing sonic team and actually gives some resources to them we are never going to get better than 7/10 games. corporations are not your friends and you dont have to thank them for giving you a mid product

sega should have been sued into oblivion for the literal seizure inducing state sonic colors ultimate was released in and we should never, ever let them forget it

remain skeptical about every single sonic game until release, we've had "WERE SO BACK" moments before that turned out to befalse

the edm in sonic frontiers cyberspace slaps but isnt as memorable as previous sonic soundtracks

stop ghosting sonics friends (sonic frontiers, sonic prime, sonic dream team) its kinda weird and puts way too much importance on sonic again. this is a good cast, USE THEM

sonic frontiers dlc being hard wasnt a bad thing, the jank, glitches, and lack of fairness were bad things that tarnished the experience

the games have never ever been properly translated from japanese into english and that is just an objective fact. but also dont shit on people for only having interest in the english version, you have to go WAY out of your way to get a good translation and that's on the franchise, not the fans

this franchise's "canon" has been fucked since the original classic games, trying to fix it in the sense that you can somehow make every little detail perfect is a lost cause. just pick and choose what you like

of all the characters that deserve a game to themselves blaze deserves it the most. girlie has a whole other dimension that we could explore can you IMAGINE an open world game in the sol dimension COME ON

if lots of people are criticizing something you like then you should give some consideration to the fact that they may have some points instead of just disregarding it as people being nitpicky and nasty. you dont have to listen to it but if you dont do that then you cant dismiss it out of hand either

the stories of sa1 and sa2 arent even the best stories in this franchise

06 sucks ass and no amount of "potential" means jackshit when it comes to actual quality. if we're just evaluating "potential" then congratulations everything ever made is a quality product have fun with that

its okay to games with goofier and lighthearted stories

team dark are just friends

i prefer amys hammer to the cards

let this franchise have its edge back. but also let sonic be cute. they arent mutually exclusive

keep good physics and momentum in the games for the love of god please its what this franchise was built on

sega of japan may do characterization better but the closest brushes to death that this franchise has ever had (Dreamcast, 06, Forces) were all on them as well

this might be the hottest take of all time but sonic team shares some of the blame in how a lot of sonic games turn out very bad, its not all on sega

stating that some sonic-inspired games (spark the electric jester and freedom planet) or sonic fan games (project 06) have turned out better than actual sonic games is kind of objectively correct but youre a dick if you say it just to make sonic fans feel bad about the games or themselves

if you ONLY consume sonic media you need to branch out more. for your own health please

flynn is neither the worst person to ever walk the surface of this planet or gods gift to the sonic fandom, practice some moderation in your opinions people

i think discourse is good, actually. except for when it harms people. and fictional characters do not count as people

sonic frontiers open world biomes are boring and nowhere close to most open world games, even ones from a decade ago

silver was never sonics rival

it would be nice if we could go back to having smaller games on handheld consoles coming out on a regular basis while mainline sonic games come out once every couple of years on a bigger scale and higher quality than weve been getting. and no locking games behind apple arcade PLEASE

sonic lost world isnt a terrible game or a good one. its just weird and boring

sonic riders was fun and its a travesty that it got downgraded into generic cart racing games

sonic unleashed daytime stages are the best boost stages in this entire franchise because they actually rely on quick decision making and reaction times instead of just smashing your way straight through the entire level with little to no effort

the werehog combat sucks ass and the fact that its super slow and super long and takes up like 75% of the time youre playing the game is why unleashed isnt peak. sorry

stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill STOP IT

a lot of fans of sonic do not understand what they are talking about and that includes me a LOT of the time

sonic himself cant just be whatever the writer wants him to be. the reason characters are characters is because they have certain character traits and you cant just change that without getting a different guy, im sorry

archiehad the worst moments but the sonic movies are the worst adaptation overall

the above will change if movie 3 kills off shadow or tom. then the worst adaptation will be underground

game sonic being a static character is cool, actually

sonic fandom is sexist as fuck and that includes the tumblr side of it

sage getting revived in a post credits scene was lame. give us more time before confirming shes alive

the sonic twitter takeovers are not canon. no, not even if you think a thing they said on it was funny

they should let female characters be naked (dont make this weird) and give the boy characters outfits sometimes

amy having a crush on sonic is totally fine but they took it WAAAAAYYYYYYYY too far at many, many points. i dont care if its funny amy threatening chris in x or intimidating cream in various games (battle, rush) was NEVER a good thing

rouges design does not need to be changed, it needs to be framed and posed in less sexual ways

rouges heroes and prime outfits sucked ngl like just from a color and design standpoint like theyre kinda ass and overcomplicated and an eyesore

if sega is gonna age the characters up they should actually go ahead and post the new ages on some official channel, dont just leave us in this horrible limbo where we have to argue with weirdos online about who youre morally okay to thirst over certain characters and whether a different voice counts as a character becoming an adult

the fact that the main official english sonic account only posts memes and advertises hilariously overpriced """"""""products"""""""" kinda sucks tbh. i have to go to other language accounts to get stuff like concept art and celebrating the anniversary of a game the released a year ago. were well past the era of laughing at sonic just for being sonic, now lets act like it

stop harrassing people involved with this series even if theyre doing an objectively bad job. thats a real person and you should care more about them than you do a fictional character

the above DOES apply to ken penders. hes a piece of shit but still a person

criticism =/= harrassment. this goes both ways

cream IS a hero thank you very much

reference to a thing you like does not equal good character writing. critically, it does not equal bad character writing either

amys not a damsel in distress and hasnt been in over 20 years. if we count characters just getting captured as being damseled then congratulations, sonic himself is a damsel in distress (Forces), apply that shit equally across both genders

ryan drummond was the best english va, but jason got the better scripts. roger is getting better and most of the work hes been given is just. bad. so i dont feel okay judging his work. but he is my least favorite

gameplay>story when it comes to the actual games, every time. if you have a good story to tell its only hampered by being in a shitty game

worst game in the series is sonic colors ultimate. say what you will about 06, forces, rise of lyric, or whatever other game. at least they werent literally physically dangerous to play

all the main female characters in the games are asskickers, they just need to be utilized more. as does every member of the supporting cast

the sonic franchise fucking needs to stop having long gone ancient civilizations. please have new ideas

this is the end of the list. go away

[crusherthedoctor]

📞 a character others dislike but you don’t?

♠️ favorite protagonist?

🕷️a character you feel is underrated?

📞 - a character others dislike but you don't?

Elise has gained more appreciation over time, but you still get people who think she's to blame for everything wrong with '06. She was a decent if underdeveloped character who simply wasn't used in the story that well, and anyone who thinks turning her into a Not-Sally is the only way to fix her isn't trying.

There's also Zor and Marine, both of whom I will always defend. Isn't it wild how I can barely remember anything from The End's three minute tough guy Reddit copypasta, yet everything Zor says is solid gold... shout out to IDW for missing the point and making him an unironic tryhard like every other villain in the comic. As for Marine, people act as though her character development never happened, which isn't helped by Flynn being one of those very people, and I don't understand why they give her flak for her stereotypical accent, yet make no such complaints about Bunnie.

For a couple of non-Sonic examples: King Sombra kind of went through the same arc as Elise in retrospect. As in, nowadays he has more open fans, but back when he made his debut, he received a disproportionate amount of flak for being a mostly silent villain, and the way he was used. I personally appreciated what they were going for with him, mainly cause of how they conveyed his Crazy Prepared defenses and the like, and honestly, by the time FiM concluded, I think he ended up better off than certain other villains lmao.

And of course, Moneybags. Not counting the first game (cause he didn't exist yet), I don't consider it a true Spyro experience if Winnie the Shit doesn't pop up in increasingly improbable locations to make deals in exchange for, *ahem*, a small fee. He also has some of the best lines. ("What are you going to do, sue me?")

♠️ - favourite protagonist?

Gex is unironically a better written character than everyone in Frontiers and IDW put together. This realisation makes me want to drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

Tails has always been my main bro out of the Sonic good guys, cause of how smart he is and how much he wants to help. :D It's also why I'm vocal about how much I despise it when fans double down on reducing the franchise to Just Furry DBZ due to super forms and whatnot, since it means Tails and other characters not named Sonic/Shadow/Silver are guaranteed to be treated even more like they're not good for anything meaningful. >:|

Then there's Spyro of course, which I know will be considered ironic to some given my complex feelings on Sonic, but truth be told, Spyro isn't really that similar to Sonic beyond some snark. He does admittedly act like a dude with tude in the first game, but it's clear that he's younger in that one. From the second game onward, where he's slightly older, he's considerably more chill... at least compared to Bubsy and many others from the 90's. And speaking of, despite his dialogue consisting entirely of WOAH, I respect Crash as well, since it was the bandicoot that got little me into the world of video games.

And many things change, but my fondness for Fluttershy will never die. Just as I have a preference for funny robot-loving villains who nonetheless remain a legit serious threat instead of being a joke, I have another preference for kindhearted quiet characters... which is why I also enjoy Trip... and Tikal... look, we all have our types, I'm sure you can sympathise. ;P

🕷️ - a character you feel is underrated?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies have mostly been pushed aside since Mania came out (aside from that one IDW story, but that's not a blessing), and it makes me madder than YouTubers who pretend they're mad because there are villains with dialogue who have less personality than these guys. They're so much fun, and despite all of them having the same Egg Robo template, their designs remain distinct from each other, even in silhouette form.

I also took to Ariem early on. Like the Heavies, "underrated" refers to general lack of fandom buzz compared to other characters, since although she appears to be quite liked, the acknowledgement given to her is somewhat limited due to her being stuck in an Android-only game for the time being. Some people also have an obsession with comparing her unfavourably to either Sage or Lanolin, for reasons I can probably guess in both cases. Me? I love her design, and her interactions with Cream and Knuckles are cute. :> I know it's not likely, but I hope she appears elsewhere so that she can be brought to more fans' attention... provided she doesn't get IDW'd.

Finally, a more complicated example: Metal Sonic. Now yes, he's very popular and beloved, and remains so to this day, but during the last couple of years, I feel I've been seeing two growing sides in the community when it pertains to him: the side who loves Neo Metal Sonic, and believe he's only a threat in that form like Flynn apparently believes (given how he often turns regular Metal into a jobber), and the side who consider him lame or essentially worthless because of his minimal characterization compared to others. He might not say much, and he might be a hedgehog-shaped tool of Eggman's ambition rather than a complete person of his own, but I believe there's a lot you can do with Metal that wouldn't require turning him into Usurper the Elf Shoes. OVA Metal ain't S-tier for nothing.

[tyrantisterror]

One thing that’s interesting when comparing Beast Wars to G1 Transformers is how often the later gets wildly reinterpreted in adaptation while the former stays relatively the same.

The G1 characters and conflict have been adapted so many times.  There are dozens of Optimus Primes and Megatrons and Starscreams and Shockwaves and Soundwaves and so fucking many Bumblebees, so many iterations of the Autobots vs. Decepticons, and either out of necessity or sheer creative boredom there have been some wild reinterpretations of them as a result, sometimes even from the same writer.  One of my favorite examples is Ultra Magnus, who in the Marvel comics was written as a very uncertain character who constantly second guessed himself and his ability to lead, but in the IDW comics was written to be this hard-lined rules-obsessed character who was always certain what he was doing was right, specifically because Simon Furman, a writer for both comics, wanted to keep from repeating himself and decided to invert Magnus’s characterization to force different stories out of him.

G1 has a ridiculously huge cast of toys characters to pick and choose from, and because of all these adaptations, almost all of them have juicy personalities and character arcs to play with.  You’ve got the A-Listers, of course, but even z-listers like Ironfist and Swerve have at least one story where they get to shine.

Beast Wars, by contrast, is almost always focused on the original main cast when it’s brought back.  Beast Megatron, Optimus Primal, Dinobot, Cheetor, etc.  Where G1 adaptations will play with new settings and conflict wrinkles (Animated puts it in the somewhat distant future, the Unicron Trilogy really emphasizes the Cosmic Horror of Unicron, etc.), Beast Wars always (with one exception) takes place on prehistoric Earth.

And I theorize this is because of the different between their first cartoons.  Both are character focused - because the whole point of a toyline-based cartoon is to get kids emotionally invested in the toys their buying, and you do that by making those toys interesting characters - but because 90′s CGI animation was a SHITLOAD more expensive than 80′s traditional animation, G1 Transformers could make the cast ENORMOUS while Beast Wars had to kill off a cast member before they could afford to bring another on, and as such the cast remained pretty damn small - which in turn meant that those characters were even more focused on, given more development, and defined in a depth that the original cartoon iterations of the G1 cast weren’t.  G1 Megatron is a defined character, yes, but that definition is loose enough that he can be wildly reinterpreted while still feeling like Megatron.  Beast Wars Megatron, though, is cemented.  He must be a schemer, he must be theatrical, he must be gleefully beyond redemption yet still charming as hell.  The characterizations and plot twists of Beast Wars are so iconic that they almost loom too large, with re-adaptations often ending up feeling like just pale imitations of the original.

Except Beast Wars Uprising, which is creative as Hell and it’s kind of a shame that the only way to read it requires you to look at an eye-searing website.

Anyway, it’s kind of fun to think of how Beast Wars could be reinterpreted.  It technically has a huge cast like G1 - there were SO many Beast Wars toys, which means there are a lot more characters than those in the original show, and as the recent-ish IDW comics show, nothing’s to stop you from adding new characters to the mix (I mean, they only added two and still stuck to a lot of the same beats as the cartoon, but still).  You could do some big shakeups.

And hell, even among that core cast, there are characters that could use some more love.  Tigatron and Airrazor got screwed by Hasbro’s requiring new toys on the screen, their arcs cut abruptly short to make way for new product.  Terrorsaur and Scorponok were similarly eliminated but also had the problem of never really defining themselves in an interesting way, they could do with entirely new characterizations.  And as Beast Wars Uprising showed, there’s  a LOT of potential in Transmutate, a character written to die in her debut episode.

Here’s hoping 90′s nostalgia will do for Beast Wars what decades of 80′s nostalgia have done for the G1 cast.  I think it’d be fun to see the franchise get weird with these beasts.

[lycanthropiclesbians]

Realising I know so little about you askdjds let's do this. Gonna send a few asks, feel free to take your time/pick and choose/ignore them/etc. Round one:

5.) Which iterations are you familiar with?

6.) Do you own any TMNT merchandise?

Aaa thank you SO much for all the asks, my friend!! It thrilled me to see.

Let's see... I would say the version I know the most about is 2003. I'm on season six right now. I'm on season four of 2012 and season two (I think?) of 1987. I have not seen TNM or that really obscure anime thing. I've seen almost all of Rise, plus the movie of course. Speaking of movies, I loved Mutant Mayhem, 2007, Batman Vs., and Turtles Forever. I've seen the first Bayverse (and liked it more than I expected to!) but not the second, and I've seen the first of the 90s trilogy but not the rest. I've read the first few issues of Mirage and the first like, two arcs of Image. I've not read any of the Archie line or Saturday Morning Adventures (except for that one crossover issue) or anything else of that sort. I've read The Last Ronin along with Lost Years and the first issue of Re-Evolution. I'm somewhere around issue #85 of IDW. Am I missing anything? Oh, I listened to CooTS once.

TL;DR: I am at least somewhat familiar with like, everything, and I am continuing to chew my way through it all at a snail's pace.

Re: merchandise, yes! I am not someone who likes to spend money on herself, especially on objects, but I've been blessed with some wonderful gift-givers in my life. So I have like, a whole shrine-ish area with books, comics, toys, plushies, other miscellaneous paraphernalia, and even homemade things. My favorites include a Mutant Mayhem Raphael plush gifted to me by my father (it has an emotionally charged story attached, but I shan't get into it here--just know that it's special and lovely) and a beautifully decorated cup made by my future mother-in-law.

[shadamyheadcanons]

So which comic/game/animated show has your favorite portray of Shadow (and also Amy)?

Don’t worry, there’s a tl;dr at the bottom.

Shadow: This is basic, but probably Sonic Adventure 2. Great character arc, great interactions with other characters, and my favorite Shadow character model of all time. Nothing compares to the flashy, structured look of Shadow’s quills in that one, and the animation of his skating is so much more effective in SA2 compared to more recent iterations. It’s no wonder he looked so cool in that game. He actually leaned into the strides like a confident speed skater. Some games and shows just have him push his feet forward, like he’s kicking his way through snow. It’s rarely slick like it used to be. He also has his best voice actor in that game (IMO). Sinister when he needed to be, calm and sincere when the time called for it, and he had just a hint of an accent that I’ve always liked for Shadow. I’ve never fully forgiven them for taking David Humphrey away from us after only...what, two or three games? Unforgivable.

Close second for Shadow is Sonic Heroes. I think that’s a less common choice, but it showcases some of Shadow’s best traits, sets him up with his Found Family, and proves he’ll do the right thing for the planet even when he doesn’t remember Maria at all. He’s good because he’s him, and even with the uncertainty of his memory loss, he seemed happier there than he does almost anywhere else. I like to think this is how Shadow would be if the ARK massacre had never happened: serious, heroic, but mostly carefree. I don’t agree that Shadow should have stayed dead after SA2, but if he’d never regained his memories at all and just moved forward with his life from there...idk. He was on the right track before he remembered G.U.N. ruined his life. At the very least, I think there’s a good chance he’d be legitimately happier. It’s worth thinking about. Oh, and David Humphrey voices him in this one, too. A+.

Honorable mention: his absolutely absurd appearances in the bizarre Sonic Dash and Spin comic. He’s portrayed as a delinquent...

...but he’s so deeply, wonderfully weird about it:

And he’s just. So...CUTE.

How did this happen?! I love it! XD

This isn’t even factoring in the CANON crush Amy has on him, though that certainly doesn’t hurt:

Dash and Spin is definitely the kind of comic you’ll connect with more if you know a bit about Japanese culture. I’m not surprised it wasn’t pushed in the US.

As for Amy, I think my favorite was Adventure Era Amy. She had the perfect blend of bravery and compassion. IDW Amy is great because she’s cool and can defend herself, but her bravery meant so much more when she couldn’t do that. She was the weakest on the battlefield with barely any strength to her name, but she always stepped up anyway. It also fed well into moments like the climax of SA2 because an ordinary girl who was counted out even by her own friends could still make a difference. I’ll never begrudge IDW or the pre-Frontiers comics for giving her the strength she’s rightfully earned by now, dammit, but I’m divided on this.

I also love Heroes Amy. She wasn’t OP like she is now, but she had a few new tricks up her sleeve, and they were hers alone. Propeller Hammer? Tornado Hammer? Her unique style of leadership through positivity that led even a fisherman, a child, and a Chao to victory? Damn impressive while still being believable for her skill and experience level at the time. She was making progress her way, not just through brute force. I usually prefer Lisa Ortiz as Amy’s VA, but Jennifer Douillard does a great job here. I think she’s at her best voicing Amy in Heroes. She finally got to be something other than just sweet.

The elephant in the room is her sudden, uh...aggression toward Sonic. Luckily, this is softened in the Japanese version. English gave us this:

“This time, there’s no way out of marrying me!”

...but in Japanese, it’s this:

“Sonic! Today’s the day I’ll get you to marry me!!”

It’s still too pushy, but she’s not saying “I’ll force you to marry me.” She’s saying “You’ll be so impressed with how far I’ve come that you’ll want to marry me.” It’s subtle, but it’s so much better, especially because Sonic pretends to lose and literally flees from her afterward while yelling, “Marriage?! No way!”

Lmao, what a coward. And Cream knows it.

Localization slandered Amy Rose in a horrible, permanent way IMO. It was after Heroes that the fandom decided she was a “crazy psycho fangirl.” It’s taken years for her to shake off that stigma, and I feel like she lost a lot of her spark in the process, at least in the games.

Thank God she still has it in Mega Drive and IDW.

I’m not the only one who feels Sega threw the baby out with the bathwater. Amy looks and acts too soft now if you ask me.

Girly is fine. Girly is good. This is Amy, after all. But...this?

Does this look like an adventurer to you? She doesn’t to me. Something was lost along the way. :(

Let her be a proper hedgehog with a backbone! Let her have a bit of an edge to her! Cream can be the soft one.

tl;dr SA2 Shadow, Adventures Era Amy, and elements of Heroes for both. So...my childhood, basically. I don’t think it’s just nostalgia, though.

(Is it obvious I just replayed Sonic Heroes? I actually got to defeat the last boss for the first time!!)

[angelmichelangelo]

I am too part of the Woodyangelo Fan Club :D It is indeed a small circle but I think through following you, I am a converted fan hahaha xD what is your favorite thing about them?

ahahaha im glad my screaming about them for long enough has had some impact lmao :’)

and there’s just so much i enjoy about them. woody is so set apart from their other friends: he’s not in that venn diagram circle of ninja shit or gang stuff that goes down. he’s just A Guy that is pretty ride or die for mike and his family just because. he goes along with whatever they’re doing without a second thought (except that one time he was nearly killed by slash in the idw comics buuuuut you can’t blame the dude imagine if a giant unstable mutant turtle attacked you 😟)

i’ve always said this (and maybe it’s a bit of self projection) but the whole mikey and woody thing is like, pretty perfect parallel of that of queer stories. here’s mikey: a VERY sociable guy that’s forced underground. he hasn’t many actual friends despite his best efforts. he’s so out there and yearns so bad even when he covers it very well. then comes along woody, a guy that is like, his perfect other half that can do all the things he wishes to do. they like all the same stuff, they get along instantly, and with woody, mikey can just. be. there’s no judgement, no worry. just a very safe space for him to be himself.. is that not queer coded or WHAT. honestly even if the idw writers came out later and pretended like that was what they were going for.. i wouldn’t even be mad. like. i’d eat that shit up. they even had mike use the line “it was love at first sight” when woody is first introduced and yeah maaaaaybe he was talking about the pizza woody had on him, but im taking that and RUUUUNNNING, anon. im GONE

the tmnt franchise, idw especially is super rich with side characters but woody just stands out to me. he’s just so very important very under appreciated imo. i need an entire 30 issue story arc about them both and then a spin off because.. OUGH they’re just. they’re juST SO!!!! I WANT TO HOLD THEM AND THEM SMOOSH THEM !!!!!!

i’ve held a lot of Big Feelings for these two for the last, what, seven years? they are my (excuse my outdated internet terms) Original Blorbos. i can thank taizi for converting me back then and now i shall spread the good word for us all lmao

anywho. im always down to just rant and gush about these two always always. like i said, i find it hard to not include him even in passing conversation in my fics just because its like. a little happiness pepper hahaha

[deadlysoupy]

For the TF ask game!!! 1 through 11 🤗

ask game yippee

i got like three asks for this thank you everyone i love you guys sm <3 (dis and dis)

1. Decepticon, Autobot or Neutral

*sobs* I DONT KNOW THEY'RE ALL LOSERS

2. Optimus or Megatron

they come in a package. both

3. Favorite Autobot(s)

Bumblebee no questions. babyboy friend-shaped

4. Favorite Decepticon(s)

Starscream he's a bitch 🥰

5. Favorite Neutral(s)

there aren't many, but i'd choose Rubble. cute little boy..... do not talk to me even

6. Favorite femme bot(s)

Windblade is really cool!!! i read her comic line (Sarah Stone is amazing, her art is some of the most beautiful i've ever seen), it's pretty nice, she's clearly into girls, she's a girlboss. one thing i will say is she seems too overpowered, ESPECIALLY in s1 Cyberverse. it got better in the end, but the writers really want me to believe she can outmatch three decepticons during a blizzard. i still remember how this rubbed me the wrong way. but otherwise she's cool!!!

7. Favorite show(s)

EARTHSPARK BARK BARK AWOO

it's the family vibes. the farm. cottagecore vibes with sci-fi sprinkled in. the Terrans are such an interesting take on the newly-forged type characters i can't wait to learn more about their origin

8. Favorite comic series

probably the second phase of IDW - TAAO specifically, but i've talked about this enough already

9. Favorite comic company for TF comics (Dreamwave, IDW, Marvel, etc.)

IDW though i will say that Dreamwave did a good job with Jetfire, and the overall read was great (even if i... skimmed over it and read the most interesting parts...)

10. Favorite human character(s)

two girlies share this place in my heart: Sari from Animated and Miko from Prime. Miko is such a well-written character, her arc with Bulkhead is cheffs kiss. Sari tho. i can talk about her for a long time, she's very unique and i wasn't expecting her to be part-Cybertronian! she's so closely knitted into the narrative i love herrr

11. Favorite ship(s)

well. i continue to spread my StarBee propaganda everywhere so. dflghrliufdghrf they're cute......

i have an opinion on MegOP too i don't know if anyone wants to hear it but they sure are interesting. i wish i was more invested in them because there is a lot of potential angst and hurt\comfort with this, but i'm content with StarBee for now heueheueheueh

[thankskenpenders]

What did you think of sonic idw’s eggperial city arc? I liked all the characters involved, but I thought it was pretty messy

Urban Warfare was an arc with a lot of cool individual moments, but it's not one of my absolute favorites overall. I'm not sure I'd really say there's anything wrong with it. Maybe it just came too soon after the big showdowns in #50 and the ensuing battles with Surge to feel like a big, climactic event? Maybe Ian resolved a little too much of the tension with the Diamond Cutters in the second issue, lowering the personal stakes for the rest of the arc?

I dunno. It was fine. I liked it. You just kinda have to have a big story where a bunch of the heroes come together to stop a big threat from Eggman and do cool shit every once in a while. It comes with the territory of writing a Sonic comic. And it was a pretty fun one of those, with good character moments sprinkled throughout for a lot of different characters. But I've enjoyed the shorter stories that have followed it more, personally

[midwinterhunt]

Who’s your favorite turtle and your least favorite if you have one.

I simply Can Not pick a least favorite. All turtles are good turtles. But I CAN tell you my favorite of each iteration.

Mirage: Raph. He had that whole demutation arc and i bonded with him.

87: Either Raph or Mikey, I'm having a hard time picking still.

90s: okay plot twist, these are my least favorite turtles because i just don't like them all that much. They just did not make me feel emotions.

03: Leo or Donnie. Leo really just Goes Through It and it makes me care, and Donnie is a delight. Also i adore Mikey's gender journey through this show. And I also love Raph. They're all my favorite in this one.

07: I don't have a strong favorite here, but i like Raph's arc and Donnie is very relatable.

IDW: Lita. Mikey is a close second. But Lita for sure. I love her so much.

12: It COULD have been Donnie, but there was the whole April situation and that was Super Rough. So I like everyone pretty equally here.

Batman vs tmnt: Mikey. I don't need to explain this.

ROTTMNT: Donnie. Literally so much like me I never related to a character so fast in my life.

mm!tmnt: I think it might be Mikey. Idk, it's pretty early, but there's something about Mikey that i'm vibing with.

and I love the Last Ronin, but i haven't read the continuation which i assume will have more turtle choices.