#i've seen a few people following me because of my saga joke so uh

[bri-does-art]

Kingdom Hearts got a lot darker and scarier than I remembered it.

Illustrating my friend @honestlyvan's vision is a pleasure as always!

[thankskenpenders]

Folks.

I am tired. I am so tired. I don't want to be making this post at 6 a.m. on the Saturday following the release of the new Sonic movie. (I would have made this post earlier in the night, but the ask box is still off because I'm supposed to be on hiatus while I finish my game, so I'm only hearing about this now.)

But, unfortunately, the ride never ends

The short version: Based on descriptions of certain scenes from fans, Penders believes that some of the echidna backstory stuff for Knuckles in the new movie is inspired by his work, like Sonic Chronicles before it. Because he was not involved and he is the legal owner of all of his Archie Sonic material, he is looking into pursuing legal action. (A lawsuit is not happening at the moment. We are at the "he's tweeting about wanting his lawyers to talk to Paramount's lawyers" stage. Well have to wait and see what happens after that.)

(This post will contain spoilers for some exposition dump lore stuff in Sonic 2. It does not spoil the ending or anything like that.)

Instead of paraphrasing him, here are his own words:

Now, a disclaimer: I haven't seen the movie. I'll be seeing it Monday at the soonest. I can't currently say how close the echidna stuff is to Ken's work

Based purely on his word here, the claim that Enerjak is in it because an echidna powers up with the Master Emerald sounds like a massive reach compared to the obvious inspiration the Nocturnus Clan took from the whole Dark Legion saga. Like, Sonic Team created the Master Emerald, and it's a power-granting macguffin belonging to the echidnas. That's just what it is, and it has been since before Penders wrote the whole Enerjak storyline. (And hell, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ken should give himself more credit if he thinks "echidna who powered up with the Emerald" is all Dimitri/Enerjak is. That's one of his more fondly remembered characters!) Knuckles' dad in the film, on the other hand... well, again, I haven't seen it, but at least one person I know who's seen it genuinely thought it was Locke, so uh... he might have more of an argument there. Or it might literally just be "Knuckles has a dad." I don't know yet. Many people in his Twitter mentions are saying they're completely different, but people have been saying that about the Nocturnus Clan for years and that's complete bullshit, so I'm withholding judgment. I'll comment on this further in a few days after I've seen the movie

However, like me, Ken has also not seen the movie yet. He may or may not have a case here, but I think that him tweeting out all of this before he's even seen it with his own eyes is extremely foolish. Yes, fans are making comparisons, but there's also a segment of the fandom that's constantly tattling to him and snitching tagging him on Twitter over every little thing because they want him to start shit. And boy, this really doesn't do anything to dispel the "Penders thinks he owns the concept of echidnas or fictional characters having parents" jokes that I've been trying to clear up for years. Thanks, Ken

Look. Most Sonic fans don't like Penders. This goes without saying. But in all fairness, I will say that if they did base anything off of the material that Penders owns (and, again, can't confirm or deny that myself right now), then he should be compensated for that. Whatever your opinion of the old Archie legal battle, he owns that stuff, period. And no matter how much you like these movies, Paramount is not your friend. They're a huge media conglomerate, and this movie is gonna make hundreds of millions of dollars. They can afford to throw a comic guy a bone if they used his material. Comic creatives deserve to be compensated fairly for their work, even ones we don't like. Yeah, this whole situation is absurd, but I don't want folks to lose sight of that

Hopefully, if he does have a case, that's all that happens. He gets cut a paycheck and it ends there. If he doesn't have a case, he's up against fucking Paramount trying to defend their latest tentpole blockbuster film franchise. Whatever happens, I sincerely doubt that this will put future films in any sort of danger, so please don't let that fear color your response to this news. He does not want to cancel the movies. He wants royalties. And again, there is no lawsuit happening right now. Please do not go spreading around rumors about there being another lawsuit. We're currently at the phase where he tweets about wanting to talk to his lawyers, and tweets are not legal action

But boy. It just never ends, huh? Jesus fucking Christ. Whatever the end result, I bet Paramount's gonna be going over the story ideas for the Knuckles show with a fine-toothed comb. Or maybe they'll just pay Penders off and lean into it. Who knows! I don't. I am not a lawyer, I am a random furry artist who has become the Sisyphus of the Sonic comic fandom. Like Sisyphus, my torments never end, so expect more posts about this as this situation develops (if it goes anywhere)

(In the meantime: please don't bother arguing with Penders on Twitter about this. I know it's fun to try to ratio him, but no argument, no matter how airtight, is going to convince him of anything in the court of Twitter. Even if he is often full of shit, he is right when he says that he's successfully argued the case for his copyrights in court, and you are a random Sonic fan presumably less than half his age. It's not worth it. Go enjoy your weekend.)