#lara-lee the echidna

[rapidhighway]

normal family, very regular stuff going on there... +julie!

[julie-su]

Echidna artwork master artwork okay Janelle-Li and Wynmacher okay 👍😁👍😊 okay I MAY need some time with you and your Chao kitty 🐈😸 🐈😸😺😸😺😺😸😺🐈😺😸🐈 Wynmacher okay with you? Janelle-Li fanart is a great time in the okay 👍 Peter Griffin GA USA ferret industry in general or at a okay I MAY need some time with you and your mom doing the okay 👍 Peter Griffin and I will send you the epub of my life is not the same vein thrombosis okay to use a function like that and I'll never forget watching AoSTH the other day. Breezie Underskirt I am going to have a nice day and I will be a good echidna OC Trearddur was named after a vacation he is a good echidna. Echidna Lore Council shall be understood as echidna OC standing politely okay brazy makes me cheers eBay BBC makes me feel so cheesy brazy Aurora Zara-Ra's crocodile spine is so nice of her tail in the fart this is the story of Zara Zara was going to the shops she was the Guardian of the master emerald and she was an echidna echidna echidna she board eggs and and because I cannot eat and a canis can eat and and she would not eat in and and ant she doesn't eat ants because they're her friends like Archimedes but I can read it was a bit too Lara su so she ate him he was so mean with heated Archimedes Archimedes Archimedes she did not eat Archimedes but he was so mean to Laura's so who is auroras Mother so rude to the mother Zara Zoe style that when she went to the shops she bought x malc and no not ant Peter Griffin when maker when make her Laura Leigh please fuckboy fuck toy toy will boy toy the sexy boy husband Laura lees boy wind waker ok he has big tits yeah giant naturals back with her breakfast she married to everyone and didn't have hands no ants

[thankskenpenders]

Enerjak Reborn: Epilogue

It’s time to answer the question on everybody’s mind. How did Ken respond to Ian killing off Locke, one of his pet characters?

Well, the answer, as you should expect, is: poorly

Now, it’s important to remind everyone that Ken has not actually read the arc. He never read any of Ian’s run, to my knowledge. But his fans were sure to tell him all about it and ask him how he felt

Eventually, in 2010, two years after this issue dropped, we got a response from Ken talking about how he felt about Ian’s run. (Again, even though he wasn’t actually reading it himself.) Said response is worth reading in full if you’re interested in all this drama and Ken’s mindset. You literally get to see the guy brag about how he actively ignored what Bollers was doing when the two were sharing writing duties, as if this is a good thing that makes him a better writer. He also criticizes Ian for using the previous writers’ characters instead of introducing even more characters to the bloated Archie cast in his first few years on the series. But the relevant part to the discussion of Enerjak reborn is here:

“I especially don’t consider anything either does with any of the echidna characters – especially Locke – to be canon as neither created the characters nor established them in stories as the viable fan favorites they’ve become. No matter what Ian writes, he can never alter the fact that in MY universe, the events of Locke’s passing as depicted in SONIC #143 is canon. Anything he writes can easily be counter-written by a better story with an alternative solution.”

Let’s just brush past the very funny part where he calls Locke a “viable fan favorite”

So yeah. Penders was VERY unhappy with the way Ian wrote Locke, and the way Locke’s death in Enerjak Reborn meant that the timeline depicted in Mobius: 25 Years Later wasn’t the one true future of the series. He’s also gone on record saying that he thinks Ian didn’t get the relationship between Locke and Knuckles. When asked about Ian’s work, this has always been one of the major things that’s bothered him

On a broader level, his ramblings here are reflective of how he views comic franchises in general. A particularly illustrative quote from him is provided in the comments section below the article I linked:

“The only work I consider significant to any character is the work done by the original creators. Anything done afterwards by anyone else pretty much doesn’t count. For example, I consider the original issues of FANTASTIC FOUR by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to be the only stories that matter in the entire run. Anything being done today is by writers and artists who are simply building off the work Stan and Jack originated. I apply this standard to just about every character I ever enjoyed over the years.”

This odd mindset explains a lot about Ken. It explains why he hates that Ian kept using his characters, and why he actively avoided building off of the work of his contemporary writers at Archie. I can see what he means on some level, of course. When another writer comes in and adds more novels to a series after the original author dies, I generally tend to ignore those. And I skipped a good chunk of Twin Peaks season 2 because it had less involvement from creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, making a lot of it feel like filler. But we’re talking about a licensed comic, one that had been a collaboration between multiple writers based on the work done for the games and cartoons from the very beginning. Ken was never the sole writer--he wasn’t even there for the first year--and he was writing stories centered around characters he hadn’t created like Sonic, Sally, and Knuckles. He doesn’t take credit for creating any of those characters, but the hypocrisy still seems to be lost on him

But of course, we’re not just talking about Ian’s handling of all of Archie Sonic here. We’re talking about Locke. And as Ken has said himself, Locke was based partially on his own father. And that’s really the kicker here

As I’ve said many times before, I try to avoid psychoanalyzing Penders and digging into his personal life. I don’t know the guy, and that’s his own business. But it’s hard not to when he literally says shit like THIS to fans

Locke is emotionally abusive towards his wife and son. Locke is also based on Ken’s dad. Ken refuses to see Locke as abusive, even though that’s exactly what he wrote, because that would mean acknowledging that his own father was abusive. So there’s always an excuse for why father knows best. It was a different era! They’re not humans! He could see the future! He might have hurt Knuckles, but it toughened him up, and he was always there for him in the end! The dad is never, ever at fault. The moms, on the other hands, are mere bystanders to the child rearing done by the dads. It’s just sad, really

I get why Ken would be bitter that Ian took this fictionalized version of his late dad, went “hey, this guy’s an asshole,” and then killed him off. I get why that would upset somebody. He wrote a very personal story there. But it’s not like Ian was pouring salt in a fresh wound--Ken lost his father all the way back in 1982. I know this because Ken literally dedicated the M25YL story about his version of Locke’s death to his dad. It had been nearly 30 years when he wrote this response to Ian’s work. That’s plenty of time to see a goddamn therapist instead of projecting all of your baggage onto Knuckles the Echidna and writing stories for kids about how you should never question your dad ever

The irony, though, is that Ian’s different take on Locke is arguably way more nuanced than Ken’s ever was. In his final moments, Ian’s Locke turns into this tragic figure who only realizes too late that the way of life the Brotherhood had raised him to believe was a mistake, that he had failed his son by passing those beliefs on to him. But he’s still held responsible for what he did. He’s a horrible dad, and the characters around him call him out for his failures, but you pity him for only now realizing what he had done

Ken, on the other hand, gestures at Locke doing horrible things, then tells you to forget about all that and stop questioning him. Knuckles pretends he has a totally normal Leave it to Beaver-ass father-son relationship as soon as they reunite in the Knuckles series. As an adult he thinks back on how great a job Locke did raising him, even though Locke literally took him from his mother, raised him to believe that his mother and the rest of his species were all dead, and then pretended he himself was dead for six years of his son’s childhood (among MANY other things)

M25YL gestures at those very same themes of not repeating your parents’ mistakes that Ian touched on in Locke’s final moments. Knuckles is raising Lara-Su very differently from how Locke raised him, and Locke admits that he wishes he had raised Knuckles differently on his deathbed. But his decision to suddenly admit wrongdoing in this flashback to his death feels unearned and arbitrary. Locke is never at fault. We cannot question Locke. Knuckles turned out fine, so don’t worry about it. Locke might regret the way Knuckles raised him, but Knuckles is not allowed to hold any ill will towards his father or question his methods whatsoever. We’re allowed to gesture at the idea that Knuckles doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the previous generations, but those vague mistakes aren’t allowed to be anyone’s fault. That’s just “how things were”

Ken would do a lot more than just complain about Ian’s handling of Locke on the internet, though. Because you see, the way Ian wrote Locke is commonly cited as one of the main reasons why Ken started copyrighting his work, right up there with Bioware basing the story of Sonic Chronicles partially off of the Knuckles comics without his blessing. And those copyrights, of course, were what started the legal battle that would kill off the original Archieverse

[trepanationgecko]

No I don’t know why I care so much about echidna lore in 2021 lol. Also I changed her name but barely to Lara-lee. Lara-le looks really weird.

[sally-mun]

back on 60's locke, it was a delibarate choice based on his guardianhood and 'supposed' refusal of technology. gotta be one with mother echidna nature and stuff. also lara-lee would kill the look. Knuxy can be a 70's child however.

Y’know the thing is, the way I write Lara-Le (at least in her youth before we line up with canon) isn’t far off from that aesthetic. Her parents styled her to be very delicate-looking, so she had a lot of lace and flowers braided spines, etc.

[mobius-prime]

176. Sonic the Hedgehog #108

Oh… please, come on, man… not this…

Robotnik x 2 = Trouble!

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

So, did you think that perhaps for once in the history of comic books, that we'd actually seen a major villain die for good? Well, apparently not so! Eggman has detected the strange reality fluctuations caused by Knuckles several days ago, and gleefully demonstrates to the newly-roboticized Snively that one such fluctuation can be localized directly within their lab. What - or who - might this fluctuation affect, you ask?

Just outside of Knothole, the Freedom Fighters are relaxing and playing a nice game of hide and seek, when Tails, who is "it," runs smack into Robotnik, looking battered and scared. They're all, of course, incredibly shocked at his reappearance, and skeptical when he claims that Eggman brought him back, but is even worse than he ever was. He ran for his life, wishing now to seek shelter in Knothole. The Freedom Fighters reluctantly bring him to the king and queen, who get him a checkup by Dr. Quack to ensure he's not merely a robotic duplicate, and then, despite his literal war crimes, just… allow him to stay in the village. With all the people he tortured and terrorized barely more than a year ago. Seriously, not even a trial for his crimes? Nothing?

Robotnik seems to have settled right in, despite Sonic's obvious exasperation, and as the crew flies him to Robotropolis he eagerly speaks about perhaps becoming allies after all this is over, while they mostly ignore him in favor of playing cards. They infiltrate the city and fight a cursory number of shadow-bot guards, and Robotnik leads them to a room with a suspiciously-shaped "computer," inviting them to stand on a platform in the center of it and have Nicole take some readings while he accesses the mainframe. Of course, this is when he shows his true colors, and traps them in an energy field that harnesses the power of Eggman's "matter fluctuator" while the two alternate-universe villains giggle with each other, ecstatic that their plan to erase their enemies seems to be working.

The Freedom Fighters reveal that they knew Robotnik was trying to trick them all along, and only played along so that he would lead them straight to the device that brought him back so they could destroy it. He's baffled by this since he's already been brought, and as he and Eggman begin to fistfight over the failure of their plot the Freedom Fighters leave, satisfied that their job is done. Their true intentions become clear very quickly, as due to Robotnik's manner of return, his molecules were very unstable, and in the middle of the fight he vanishes back into oblivion, causing Eggman to punch Snively accidentally and then become furious at his loss once again.

This story basically ended up going nowhere, as Robotnik really, truly is gone for good this time, but I suspect it was mostly written as a lead-in to the two character files we'll be perusing today - one on the original Robotnik, and the other on Eggman, AKA Robo-Robotnik. We'll be skipping the explanations of their life stories, as we already know all of it - no new information is provided - and instead we'll look at the technical details. First of all are their height and weight. These details are identical for both entities, as they come from near-identical backgrounds in their respective zones. Their height is 189 cm or 6'2", which is only one inch taller than their game counterpart. However, their weight is where we run into a bit of a problem. Given all the tasteless jokes made especially in the early days of the comic about how fat and humongous and gargantuan Robotnik is, how heavy exactly would you imagine he is? I bet you didn't guess 61.7 kg or 135.8 lbs. That is not just an absurdly low weight for a being of his stature, that is my own weight. I'm pretty sure this is just a big oversight on the part of the writer, because there's no way in hell an obese six-foot-tall man shares his weight with an average-height, average-build girl in her early 20s. For Eggman, however, though I'm sure he shared his body type with Robotnik when he existed within his own zone, those stats are likely to be a bit different now due to his being a robot in a new body and all.

As far as their ages, this is where they differ significantly. They shared their early history in their respective zones, so both were born on the same birthday of September 10. However, the original Robotnik died at age 45, almost 46, when the Ultimate Annihilator went off. I include "almost 46" because the character file actually gives an exact date of death, June 13, meaning we now know to the day exactly when Endgame occurred. Endgame played out over the course of three days, so that whole shebang started on June 11, which was also the day Sally supposedly died before the truth was revealed. Please keep this date in mind, it will become important in a few issues. Eggman's reality, on the other hand, diverged a few years before Endgame, resulting in his own roboticization at the age of 43. At this point, his physical age likely "froze" since he was no longer bound by the aging process of flesh and blood, while his mental age continued to progress. His zone's timeline has already surpassed that of Mobius Prime, as in that zone Sonic and Sally were married with children, so mentally he'd more likely be somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties. Makes sense to me, though original Robotnik was certainly a little younger than I had imagined him to be.

"…A Girl Named Hope!"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Sally has received a letter from Hope Kintobor, who was taken along to Station Square with the rest of the refugees, and decides to bring it to her parents to read it out to them. Hope proves herself to be a very well-spoken young girl in the letter, writing about how when she and her people first landed on the outskirts of Robotropolis and she saw Sonic, she thought he looked scary, as she'd never seen a Mobian before. However, over the course of living in the city, she began to mistrust her uncle after seeing more evidence of his roboticization of Mobians, and eventually realized that the Mobians were better than she had been led to believe after witnessing them rescue both their roboticized brethren and the rest of the Overlanders.

She describes how most of her life in space, ever since she was two years old, was spent in cryosleep, learning about the history of their home planet, including the details of the Great War between her people and the Mobians. They only ended up returning because their ship's power supply began to fail, but now, she no longer feels at home amongst her people, with the loss of her stepfather and grandmother.

This is honestly a very sweet story, and I'm glad we'll be seeing more of Hope. She was definitely the most interesting character among the Overlanders, and she's obviously a very observant and intelligent girl.

Reunification (Part 3)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: J&A Ray

Lara-Le is not at all happy about Knuckles' decision to join up with the Legion, even scolding him for what his father will likely think when he finds out. Knuckles becomes defensive and asks her why they can't just hear him out first, and she replies that she thinks he's too much of a threat to her children.

Wow, Lara-Le, you and Wynmacher have been pretty busy then, huh? That's a pretty big gap between your kids' ages there - Knuckles is gonna be seventeen by the time that baby is born, assuming that Mobian echidnas have a similar gestational period to humans. While he and his mother continue to discuss matters, Dimitri goes before the council to argue his case for reuniting echidna society. Most of the members present have obvious misgivings, but one Mitre agrees that society should come back together instead of fighting, though he expresses some disapproval of Dimitri's methods through such extensive cybernetics. While they continue to argue things out, Lara-Su waits outside Lara-Le's apartment, waiting for Knuckles to come out so she can spy on him and ensure he's not killed. He exits, and she follows him to the council chambers, witnessing him talk briefly with Lien-Da on the steps outside the building. She recognizes Lien-Da as "the one person Mom absolutely refuses to talk about." The two go inside, and Knuckles steps forward to express his reluctant support for Dimitri, commanding the respect of those present since they know he's fought with Dimitri many times before. Interestingly, the current echidna government is referred to as "the theocracy" in contrast to Dimitri's "technocracy" - elements of an echidna religion have been hinted at here and there, such as Lara-Le praying in the Aurorium, and the councilor all the way back when Dimitri first "died" quoting from what sounded like some kind of bible, but I think this is the first indication we've ever had that the current government is literally a theocracy, running according to a religious tradition instead of an intellectual one. This puts an interesting - and even more worrying - spin on the whole "banning technology" thing, as real life has shown time and again that religious fundamentalism almost always leads to hypocrisy and needlessly-restricted personal freedoms, which honestly fits exactly with everything that we've seen over the echidnas' history so far. But anyway, while Knuckles says his piece about trying to work together and resolve differences, Lara-Su tries to badger her way into the council chambers, only to be stopped by a guard.

What a cliffhanger! I'm sure there's no way she's interpreting the situation wrong due to not seeing everything that's happened up to this point, right? Right?

[shadowbrotherhood]

More on Echidna life:

I have, for sure, that male Echidna names end with consonants and females end with vowels. Knuckles: Pachamac, Lara-le: Lauranne

Male names will usually start with harsh sounds, and females softer. And Shackles, as i have him nonbinary, fits into both gender naming norms. His 'traditional' echidna name is Kajarene.

And to distant my echidna further from penders, "J"s are pronounced as hard "Sh" sounds so Kajarene would be phonetically said as "Ka-Sha-Reen".

Julianne, my repurposed julie-su is "Shu-lee-awn".

When they reach 12 years old, echidna go through a rite of maturity where they no longer have to trim their quills- allowing them to grow with them and are allowed to take part in society (ie apprentencing for future jobs, training to become warriors, guardians ect)

Quill length shows an individuals age, and if you are to see an adult echidna that has one or more quills shorter than others- that means there has been loss in their lives. Either the death of a family member or close friend/lover. They will trim one quill as a sign of respect.

Women will usually start to style and braid their quills once theyve started to integrate into society- adorning their fringes and quills with complex braids and beadery- And each braid or acessory will usually have a deep meaning- as theyre added during major points in their lives.

there are also no 'set' gender roles in echidna society. Jobs and tasks are split pretty evenly, and women usually take more labor intensive roles- like smithing, carpentry, and even generals.

Men usually stay home and protect their families and villages as a last wave resort- they also take on the parenting and teaching roles.

This is why youll see men as school teachers, spiritual leaders, and shaman- passive over tactical and active roles.

Knuckles really is an odd man out among echidna- his temper and urge to fight and be an active role in guardianship isnt common for men. Guardians are usually seen as some of the most level headed individuals, as it takes a lot of patience and time to become connected to the Master Emerald.

And thats what ive got for now

[mobius-prime]

177. Sonic the Hedgehog #109

I Herd It Through the Pipeline

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

No, that title is not a typo. We're back to terrible puns. Also, as hilarious as that cover page is, once again it's an example of a cover that wildly misrepresents what's actually going on in the issue, for whatever reason.

Sonic walks in on Rotor being sentimental about his family, and when Rotor explains that his family is once again under a mind control spell, Sonic suggests, and Sally backs him up, that they should travel to the North Tundra to use the Sword of Acorns to free his herd. And thus, Sally heads off to retrieve the sword…

Okay, there's been something weird going on with this thing for a while. This sword seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Sally, which is odd as swords aren't even supposed to be able to think. She shakes off her bemusement, and together she, Sonic, Rotor, and Bunnie head out in Rotor's submarine in search of his family. They notice an underwater oil pipeline which they begin to follow, as it's an obvious sign Eggman has been here, but Eggman notices them and sends out his "'sea'-crete weapon" to attack them - an electric eel that begins zapping the craft.

They manage to make it to shore without any further trouble, and find the pipeline has led them to an oil rig, which Rotor's herd is being forced to work on as mindless slaves. They fight off the shadow-bots guarding the site while Eggman angrily but uselessly screams at them through a video monitor, powerless to stop them, and then Sally heads off to free the herd…

…while Rotor sets some charges on the side of the rig, blowing it up. Rotor's family is thankful that he came back for them, and they invite the Freedom Fighters away for a meal, happy to once again be free.

Now, instead of a normal character file or map, we actually have Knuckles' family tree to examine!

Most of this we already know from the many, many previous issues covering the topic, but it's kind of nice to have it all laid out for us in one place in an easy-to-read family tree. This does, however, tie in to what I brought up a while back, about whether Thunderhawk is Sojourner's father or vice-versa, and how different issues say different things. In this tree's case, Thunderhawk is depicted as Sojourner's father, which is in direct contrast to how the two were introduced in KtE#29. Kind of funny how Penders couldn't keep those two characters straight for the life of him. It's also a bit peeving that most of the characters in the tree are male - Penders, for all his anti-misogyny attitude, still finds himself stuck in more old-fashioned ways of thinking, which is ultimately probably why the Brotherhood is such a boys' club and most of the women in the tree were just gentle, loving housewives who bore the next generation's Guardian. Obviously, that's not at all the way Julie-Su carries herself, but this trend did apparently make people worry back when the comics were still coming out that Kenders would, in the future, turn Julie-Su into the loving housewife as well, where she would become just The Mom to Lara-Su. I guess we'll see if that really does happen, huh?

"…The Crush!"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

Mina is gazing on Sonic from afar, still lost in her crush on him, and when she tries to run after him and trips on a rock, Sally shows up to catch her before she falls. To her everlasting credit, despite her obvious jealousy over Mina's supposed relationship with Sonic, Sally lets none of it show and only speaks kindly to Mina. Mina dejectedly explains how she's been trying to get Sonic's attention lately, but hasn't been very successful so far.

That has to be a relief for Sally, given her mistaken interpretation of that kiss. Mina then asks for Sally to describe Sonic to her, and though she's surprised, Sally does her best.

This is probably one of the best descriptions of not just Archie Sonic, but every Sonic, that I've ever seen. It really does sum up what defines him as a character, and why he's so well-loved by the fans as well as all the supporting cast of whatever canon he's in. Mina is pleased with Sally's breakdown, and thanks her before running off, and Sally turns away with a small smile, obviously relieved that Mina and Sonic are not in fact an item and that she still has a chance with him.

Reunification (The Conclusion)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Lara-Su leaps at Remington as he fires his weapon, determined to stop him from hitting Knuckles, but then realizes that in actuality he was firing at someone else who was firing at Dimitri. Knuckles is struck as he jumps in front of Dimitri to protect him, and collapses motionless on the floor as the occupants of the room go into an uproar at the attempted assassination.

Oh, Lien-Da. Of course you would be the traitor. It's actually quite fascinating to see how after losing his powers, Dimitri has actually ended up as the more reasonable one, seeming to genuinely want to reunite his society, while Lien-Da, ever relegated to the background, to being second-best, has begun to scheme for power of her own. There's a reason I said before that she's one of my favorite villains of this series. The council suggests forming a committee to help bridge the differences between the two sects of echidna society, stating that Dimitri's ancient proposal was rejected originally due to the technology simply being ahead of its time, but that now their society might be able to move forward into a new technological renaissance. Lien-Da slips out a back door, determined to make sure her assassin doesn't talk when questioned by the police force, and Lara-Su also exits, devastated that she was unable to save her father's life. She's startled by the sudden appearance of Julie-Su, who has run up upon hearing the news of Knuckles' apparent death, and as she stops to examine the assassin being detained by Remington and his crew, Lien-Da realizes she has a shot to take out two of the thorns in her side with one blow, ordering her other hidden assassin to take the shot… and luckily, Lara-Su is standing right next to him, easily preventing the tragedy from occurring. She realizes that maybe, in going back in time, she was meant to save her mother instead of her father. However, she then begins to fade from sight to her horror, yelling that she wasn't meant to go back to the future yet. Julie-Su bursts into the council chambers in time to see Knuckles standing up completely unharmed, where he states that he deliberately took the blow to win Dimitri's trust, but that now they have to be careful, as there seems to be a traitor in their midst…

Julie-Su explains that in reality, she always told her daughter that Knuckles was dead because she wanted to shield her from the truth, which is that Knuckles actually went insane from the Chaos energy that he absorbed and now he's trying to take over the world with his revamped version of the Dark Legion. But now that she's old enough, and has seen the past for herself, Julie-Su thinks that Lara-Su is ready to help her face down her father for good, and begins packing up a duffel bag full of guns like some kind of Mobian Sarah Connor. And then they're just… off! No need to elaborate on anything else! The end!

Honestly, this entire section is very poorly explained, so I'll do my best. It seems that Lara-Su grew up in some kind of dystopia with her mother, who explained past events in a skewed manner to try to protect her daughter from the truth, until Lara-Su decided to take matters into her own hands to change the past and fix the future. Hey, sounds like a certain white fluffy hedgehog we know, huh? However, the implication seems to be that in some way, in a short while in our current timeline Knuckles will actually go insane from Chaos energy. This wouldn't be a problem, aside from obviously not wanting a major character of the comic to go crazy, except that this means that Julie-Su would basically already have to be pregnant with Lara-Su, since I doubt she and Knuckles would be trying for a baby after he went nuts. While teen pregnancies do happen, I'm not sure I like the implication that he's somehow already gotten Julie-Su pregnant, in the middle of everything else that's happened, and that now this fifteen year old is about to have a baby. To be clear - she does not in fact get pregnant at any point during the course of the preboot (not counting future versions of her who already had Lara-Su, obviously), but I'm genuinely not sure if Penders just didn't really think through the implications of what he wrote here, or if he did, and fully intended this to be implied by the circumstances depicted. I mean, we already know he has a history of writing really weird things about sexual relationships between teenagers (and we're not even done with those, either - yes, there's more to come), but I think this is one of the ones that more easily flies under the radar due to the confusing, garbled nature of this plotline.