#was written by Ian Flynn. and I love Ian's work in IDW so like

[sage-nebula]

Well, it was Penders shenanigans who forced Sega to step in so I don't blame them for watching the comics like hawks.

I don't like Penders at all—I think he's a petty, misogynistic creep and a bad artist to boot—but I think it's reductive to blame it all on him.

First, he wasn't the only writer on Archie who got up to some nonsense back in the day. I won't pretend to be an expert on Archie by any means, since I've only read two issues myself (one where Sonic got mind controlled for an issue and beat up his friends, the other was the Sally/Nicole stargazing one because I'm gay), so everything I know about it, I know via osmosis, mostly thanks to the ThanksKenPenders liveblogs. But I do know that Penders was only the lead writer on Archie for a certain amount of time, and that there were other writers after and I think before him. Penders is the most infamous because of the lawsuits and because he has a chronic case of Can't Shut The Fuck Up Disorder that constantly rears its ugly head on twitter, but he's not the only one that got up to some bullshit in the Archie comics. He's just the most notorious.

Second, while Sega undoubtedly started laying down more mandates once they finally started paying attention to what the Archie comics were doing (e.g. I've heard it was because of that cover with Sonic crying that Sega was like "no, don't show our hero in distress in that way"), it's to be honest standard fare for companies to pay close attention to how their license is used and it's stranger that Sega wasn't paying attention back in the 90s than it is that they are paying attention now. Like for example, Nintendo is notorious for how strict they are with their IPs, but they're far from the only ones. Hasbro has oversight with Transformers and My Little Pony, in both comics and cartoons. Disney controls portrayal of Mickey Mouse in any licensed games that are made. Part of why Voltron: Legendary Defender was such a mess is because of fighting between the writing staff and the desires of the brand executives, so on and so forth. The fact that Sega was so hands-off with Archie is an exception for how licensed properties are handled, not the rule, and my guess would be that there was some sort of leadership change within Sega that made whoever got put in charge step in and fix things.

So it makes sense for Sega to closely scrutinize what goes into the IDW comics, to make sure that it's promoting a positive representation of Sonic and the franchise as a whole. It's what pretty much every other license holder would do when it comes to a licensed work. The sun would burn out before Nintendo would let someone run roughshod with a Mario comic*, and the same with Disney and Mickey Mouse. I think it's fair and just that Sega protects Sonic in the same way, especially since the IDW team has proven that they can still produce very good comics even with the mandates in place.

(*In fact, Archie actually pitched the idea of a Mario comic to Nintendo, which would have been written by Ian Flynn. Nintendo of America approved it, but Nintendo of Japan said no, so the project was scrapped. Nintendo is very protective over their IPs, and I think it's good that Sega has started following in a similar example with Sonic.)

[nightfurylover31]

Maybe it’s an odd time to bring it up, but it is Valentine’s Day. Sonamy and Sonally have been one of the biggest ship wars in the franchise. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing as it used to be, but there is still occasional bashing or something. After some deep thought, I think I came up with an answer to make both sides happy.

It has nothing to do with Amy or Sally. It depends on the VERSION of Sonic.

When you think about it, Archie/SatAM Sonic and Mainline Sonic are actually pretty different. With SatAM and Archie, Sonic was born in a monarchy and had a steady home, even when fighting in a war. He’s used to being in one place. He also fought Robonik/Eggman because he had to, freeing the planet and restoring the kingdom. As for the games and IDW, Sonic travels the world and fights Eggman because he wants to, not because he has to. It may not seem like much, but they are key factors. These different lifestyles show more of who would be a better partner for him. Sally has responsibilities as a princess and leader. Even if Eggman is defeated for good, she will still be bound to these duties. Amy, on the other hand, is more adventurous and loves trying new things. She may settle down at times, but she still loves to travel. Both girls are compassionate and ready to help others and can even take the lead when they have to, but go about it in different ways. Sonally is a case of opposites attract and Sonamy is more kindred spirits.

While Sonic and Sally clash at times over how to plan, they work together to pull them off. They are more at ease when they don’t have to be on missions, and more overt about dating. They are also childhood friends in these continuities, knowing each other longer than their other friends. This led to their feelings becoming stronger over time. Sally has grown more into being on the battlefield, but usually works more behind the scenes or deals with the more technical or planning while Sonic takes most of the action.

Sonic and Amy both love adventure and sometimes act before they think. They also go out of their way to help others without a second thought. Amy may be a big romantic, but her relationship with Sonic nowadays is more on the subtle side and no less important and sweet. She used to chase after Sonic, but wasn’t so blinded to put her own desires ahead of others. Amy is also one of the first people Sonic met in his fights against Eggman. Amy also trained herself to be stronger to stand by Sonic’s side so she could protect him like how he protects her.

I do want to talk about the X Years Later/Light Mobius arcs in Archie. In that timeline, Sonic and Sally are married and rule as king and queen. While at times he’s not always happy with being king, he loves Sally enough to accept it. He was even willing to be her royal consort until they could be wed in Archie issue #124 (which is probably the most out of character moment compared to his game counterpart ever). And while we never see Amy in those arcs, Ian Flynn has said a few times on the Bumblekast he thinks Amy would be traveling around with the Time Stones. I thought that was a cool idea, and that feels more like the kind of life the mainline Sonic would want to have.

I kind of feel obliged to bring up Elise. Most people may not like it, and I prefer them as friends, but she was also written as a love interest. Anyway, in one scene Elise asks Sonic if he’ll leave after Dr. Eggman and his plans for Soleanna are stopped, which the hedgehog confirms. Despite what feelings he may have for Elise, he’s not going to give up his lifestyle just to be with her. And I do not mean to make it sound mean, it’s just who he is. A free spirit, free as the wind. And in Sonic and the Black Knight, he is revealed to be the true King Arthur, but he doesn’t accept it. He’s uncomfortable with how the other knights bow to him. I find it hard to believe this Sonic would want that kind of life for anyone, even if Sally was part of the main continuity. She wouldn't give up her duties for him either. A steady relationship or royal lifestyle just isn’t for Sonic’s game counterpart. In issue #2 of IDW, Amy knows Sonic can't be held down and respects his decisions. She loves Sonic for who he is and doesn’t want to change him. Instead, she’s fine with just going on adventures with him. Living in the moment. It’s not the life she initially wanted with him, but it’s enough for now. It does feel like they have become closer after Forces. The game was far from the best, but the premise of spending six month apart is a good way to build something up for them.

The reboot in Archie kind of proves this point about the relationships as well, albeit unintentionally. While the main reason is the new mandates were that game characters could not date, Sonic and Amy felt a lot closer than before. Sonic and Sally were also confirmed to only have a platonic relationship in the new timeline. This is due to Sonic’s past now being closer to his game counterpart rather than SatAM. He’s still part of the Freedom Fighters, but still has his world traveling roots. For example, he came to Mobotropolis after Eggman took over instead of living in the city at the time.

Sonamy and Sonally are both valid ships and deserve support. But don’t hate on the other when it’s the version of Sonic that truly matters for deciding who is the better match for him.

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

SONAMY ongoing evolution

I've been playing Sonic frontiers and I watched Sonic prime and I read the IDW comics... Omg where's do I start???

Sonic frontiers is just a work of art in general, but the sonamy inside is just beautifully portrayed, I can say that Ian Flynn totally ships them 😌😌. I'm just so utterly happy how things had changed even if it took so many years

Sonic changed a lot his perception of Amy! 🥲🥲🥲 Also the detail of the umbrella line, remember that sonic was created in Japan, say fellow anime fans what does usually means when two characters share an umbrella? What does it mean when students in Japan draw an umbrella in the blackboard with two names written under it? It is clear that Ian Flynn totally knows the meaning and the MUSIC! Seriously those scenarios with Amy and that music felt like it came right out of a shojo anime😖😖😖💗💗

But also the feels... THE FUCKING FEELS!! The way Amy is kind of too calm with her situation but Sonic is just so worried and you could tell how worried he was even if he tried to play it cool... His expressions girl... Look at him with his cute ears dropped 🥲🥲🥲 Guys this game fed us good stuff... We shippers finally got what we had always wanted.

Next topic: Sonic Prime.

So I'm a bit conflicted, cause i only liked one of Amy's different designs and that was Thorn Rose, I'm obsessed with her hair but dude Rusty Rose? That could have been better... Also why Rusty Rose and not Metal Rose? Cyborg Rose? Badnik Rose? Mecha Rose? Robot Rose? Rusty sounds a bit degrading... It is because she was made like that by the Egg council? Pff also her robot appearance is just so ugly! What with that eye? But I love the dark concept and I love her SASS 🤣🤣🤣🤣Anyway my problem with Rusty Amy and Sonic is that it feels like the situation is not treated nearly as serious as Nine situation and boy ok you are a hurt loner with bully victim issues but Amy is basically dead, like there's no flesh or organs in her, she literally has a Birdy as a source of life and what is the outcome of that? Is there another outcome different from Gamma's fate in sonic adventure? Because the second Amy gets back her emotions she will want to release the bird... But more importantly... I can't wait to see Shadow react to her... This is the girl that reminded him of Maria, i really shouldn't but I really have high expectations for what kind of interaction will they have, we really need to see Shadow and Amy interact more let's be honest. As for the other Roses, there's no much to say about Black Rose but with Thorn we got good stuff too:

But I have to say one thing... Ok I know Amy is a strong power character but... It's a bit ridiculous that she could fight off characters like Rouge and Knuckles THAT EASY is just...🙃🙃🙃 Well i loved the part when he tries to reason with her all like: you liked me... A bit? Remember? And she is just so irritated and done with him already 🤣🤣🤣 but then... We also got this:

Actually touch her cheek you COWARD!!😤😤 Also when he was about to smash her and but stopped because he has a flashback of his Amy 😭😭😭, it's curious that Thorn Rose seems to be more impactful in Sonic than Rusty Rose which is ok but is odd plot speaking, after all Rusty is the one in the worst condition and is the one hunting him down, I'll just wait for next season and see what happens

And last but not the least I Shall say something about THIS!!

This illustration hit me right in the kokoro, date with hands holding and Sakura petals... is pure shojo manga energy!! I'm so blessed 😭😭💗💗

And of course the important reminder that Amy is a POWER CHARACTER and that's why she and knuckles make a good POWER SIBLINGS team as I stated in their own post about them... And dear Silver fucking gave her a COLOSSAL hammer 😂😂😂do not mess with the pink hedgehog buddy, and of course Sonic knows exactly how awesome she is as it should be, seriously she is really getting better and better, i really hope we'll see her in the next movie

[tenebraevesper]

King Shadow (The Alternate Story)

A while ago, I did an analysis on King Shadow from the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie) comics, King Shadow (The Altered Future & The Altered Character), which is my least favorite take on Shadow the Hedgehog in official media so far. By the end of it, I had said that I might write down my take on King Shadow if you guys want me to, and I got a positive response. So, here is my concept.

Please note that this are my thoughts and if you have your own ideas regarding how you’d write King Shadow, I’d love to hear them.

First, I want to start off with the setting. King Shadow appears in the alternate future called Light Mobius in Ian Flynn’s continuation of Ken Penders supposed “magnum opus”, called Mobius: 25 Years Later... which is probably the worst Sonic story I have ever read. Ian’s attempts at fixing the story and turning it into something good fall flat mainly because the base of the story is really weak and while it has some interesting concepts, it really falls apart in the grand scheme of things.

The gist of Penders!25YL is that absolutely nothing happens until King Sonic is sent back at time to prevent a disaster and the story ends there. Ian!25YL picks the story up where it ended, explaining how King Sonic fixed the future, but it has been altered in such way that Shadow went on conquering the world for basically no reason and crowned himself king.

From what I understood, the reason why Shadow was written as an evil king was because at the time, he was still seen as an antagonist.

Now, thinking about the setting... I feel like we don’t even need it. Honestly, when I started writing this concept, I took a look at 25YL/30YL and decided to just Ctrl+Alt+Delete the whole thing and start with a blank slate. As a matter of fact, this doesn’t even have to take place in Sonic (Archie). It only has to take place in the Sonic Universe.

Next, the biggest issue I had was with was Shadow’s motivation for conquering the world - that being that he apparently had none. Admittedly, this seemed to have been somewhat expanded in Mobius: 30 Years Later...

If I understood correctly, the world had been at a war and Shadow conquered it to bring peace, but he turned into a tyrant in the process, using brute force to keep everyone in line. I think that this isn’t a bad motive, but it still needs to be worked on.

So, with the two main issues I had with this story (there are many more, but let’s focus on just these two for now), here’s my idea how the story might go. Once again, this is just a concept idea and if you don’t like how I wrote King Shadow, you’re free to tell me how you would write him. 

Trigger Warning - It is quite brutal.

Shadow’s descent into becoming a tyrannical King would have its origins in a tragedy (yeah, I like to make the characters I love suffer), with the story starting off with Sonic and his friends being involved in another battle against Eggman. This takes place at a point where Shadow has opened up more to his friends, like Rouge, Omega, Sonic, etc. He has moved on from his past, accepting his new life and managed to forge several close bonds.

This confrontation everyone participates in is on a grand scale, think something akin to the battle during the Metal Virus Saga from Sonic IDW, and is incredibly brutal, with the consequences of it that most of the characters have been either killed or died due to their wounds. Sonic has somehow vanished during the battle, leaving Shadow as one of the few survivors. Having witnessed the demise of his closest friends, Shadow would be deeply affected by this traumatic experience, the memories of his past overwhelming him.

He had lost Maria, and just when he had come to terms with moving on and living life with his new friends, he now lost everyone he cared about. This would lead to him shutting down, or at least becoming closed off once again as he tries to handle the grief and survivor's guilt, with the only hope being that there wouldn't be any conflict because Eggman is also gone. The world is at peace now, isn’t it?

Except, that's not the case. New villains would rise and Shadow would see it as his own responsibility to go to the front lines to fight these new villains, over and over again. He is The Ultimate Lifeform, the strongest being in the universe, and he feels that he needs to soldier on and protect the world as he had not only promised to Maria, but to himself. He also refuses to get close to anyone else, because he doesn’t want to deal with another loss.

Eventually, he is called to deal with another conflict, this one being rather petty. It doesn’t matter what it is, but the point is that this is what finally breaks Shadow. He realizes that no matter how hard he works to protect the world, there would always be new conflicts, even for the most ridiculous reasons and people would continue being ungrateful for the peace he’s trying to create.

So, he decides to take matters in his own hands.

After all, Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform. He is nearly invulnerable, he is ageless, he is incredibly skilled with Chaos Energy and can use the Chaos Emeralds to turn into Super Shadow. No one can harm him and, more importantly, no one can stop him. 

In order to preserve peace, he takes it upon himself to conquer everything, crowning himself as King Shadow, and makes sure that all wars/conflicts cease. If someone attempts to cause trouble, he'll deal with them swiftly and, if they resist, brutally. Peace is finally brought back to the world.

However, one issue remains. Even though Shadow has achieved his goal of peace, he enforces it with an iron fist. People are living in fear of him and have to walk on eggshells as they believe that even the smallest argument or protest might get them thrown into prison or worse. They see him as a tyrant king, and Shadow knows that.

He knows that people fear him, but because of his immense power, no one would dare to challenge him. He doesn't pay mind to them though, as being ageless, he'll outlive them. His reign is absolute and no one can do anything about it. He is angry though, noting how ungrateful everyone is - they finally are at peace, yet they complain about it. He would, however, acknowledge that they're partially right - he knows that he's a tyrant for enforcing peace with an iron fist, but he doesn't care. It was a necessity.

Shadow is also dealing with loneliness, heavy trauma, survivor's guilt and understands that he twisted his promise to protect the world beyond recognition. He notes that he isn't doing this for Maria, but for himself. He knows that his old friends would be horrified by what he had done, by what he had become, but he saw no other way out of this situation. He knows that he is the villain here, and he has embraced that role fully during the time that had passed.

Then, some time during King Shadow's rule and him dealing with a resistance of some sort, Sonic suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere.

Now, I haven’t really thought about what would happen to Sonic, but the general idea is that he may have experienced some kind of time travel, which flung him from the past into the King Shadow!Future. He may have even had some help from Silver.

Regardless of what happened to Sonic, he has talked to the leader of this resistance movement and learns not only about the deaths of his friends, but also about Shadow's tyrannical rule and decides to confront him. The resistance members, not really knowing what kind of person Sonic truly is, figure that Sonic is going to remove Shadow by force, possibly even kill him, and support him.

Shadow also hears about Sonic's return, and while he's shocked at first that Sonic has somehow miraculously survived the battle, he decides to prepare for their eventual encounter. Interestingly, he actually welcomes Sonic with open arms, despite being aware that Sonic wants to fight him, and when Sonic attempts to talk things out, he punches his rival.

This escalates into a battle between the two, where Shadow reveals what he had gone through and admits that he knows that he has become a tyrant and that people hate him, but he feels that he was too far gone to change. He had been hoping for that eventually someone would come and put him out of his misery - and Sonic is the only one who can do that. 

So, the two fight, going all out on each other, with the battle ending in Sonic’s victory. However, instead of destroying Shadow, who is laying on the ground, defeated, Sonic offers him his hand, much to everyone’s shock. Sonic explains that he’d rather stay with Shadow and help him deal with his trauma, and the only reason he fought the latter was because he knew they both needed to blow off some steam without putting anyone else in danger.

Sonic explains to Shadow that they both dealt with a heavy loss and he is still grieving the death of his friends, but he isn't going to lose another friend, that being Shadow himself. Sonic wants to help Shadow heal, pointing out that he and Shadow had the same goal in achieving peace, except Shadow went overboard in his grief, and he doesn't consider Shadow a lost case. 

While still in shock, Shadow accepts the proposal, grabbing Sonic’s hand and getting up, but is basically arrested by the resistance. They still want him to be punished for what he had done, and Shadow agrees to it, even if Sonic protests, because he feels Shadow has suffered already enough.

As it turns out, Shadow gets banished from his own kingdom, as they have no means of imprisoning him, and when the court debates on whether they can even do that, since they would have to trust that Shadow wouldn’t return on his own to take back his kingdom, Sonic replies that he’ll keep an eye on his the ebony hedgehog.

Once left alone, both Sonic and Shadow are aware it will take a while to heal from what had happened to both of them, but Sonic is just glad to at least have one friend by his side, suggesting they travel together from one place to another and help those in need or go on adventures. Sonic notes how regardless of everything, he will continue to protect people, with Shadow agreeing - ending the whole thing on a bittersweet, but hopeful note.

Whatever happens afterwards, they will face it together.

EDIT:  

#Isekai'd As My Past Self (Sonic the Hedgehog AU Story) - a spiritual successor to this story idea.

#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer (Masterlist)  

[chrysalis-the-butterfly]

Queer Ladies of Sonic the Hedgehog

The Sonic franchise doesn’t have a whole lot of romance.  There’s the occasional ship tease, and that’s about it.  And there definitely isn’t a lot of queer content.  

However, there are some Sonic characters who have been confirmed to be LGBT+ in some way.  It’s usually just a behind-the-scenes comment from someone working on the series, rather than representation in the story itself - but hey, it’s better than nothing.  

I was interested in the women and girls in particular, so here’s all the (almost) canonically queer ladies associated with Sonic the Hedgehog.  

Look under the cut to see the full list!  

Sally Acorn is bisexual and Nicole the Holo-Lynx is in love with her.�� 

Pre-reboot, Sally was Sonic’s girlfriend.  Post-reboot, however, the writers place a greater emphasis on her connection with Nicole.  This would suggest that Sally is bisexual.  

Nicole loves Sally back, so - depending on whether you see her pre-reboot interactions with Shard and Espio as friendly or romantic - you could read Nicole as lesbian or bi.  

At one point during the Spark of Life arc, Sally asks Big the Cat if he minds that Nicole isn’t organic like the rest of the Freedom Fighters.  Big’s response is, “As long as they’re nice, I don’t care what anyone is.”  This exchange could be read through a queer lens - in which case, Sally is checking to see if others are okay with her dating Nicole, and Big is suggesting that he’d accept them.  

Ian Flynn has stated that he supported the Sallicole pairing and left subtle hints to it throughout the Archie Comics series.  However, it wasn’t featured too strongly because he knew a large proportion of the Sonic fanbase would not accept Sally dating anyone other than Sonic.  

Gold the Tenrec is sapphic.  

Evan Stanley stated on her Tumblr blog @spiritsonic​ that she was “leaning towards either bisexual or lesbian” for Gold’s orientation.  She added that Gold would crush on Blaze, Sally or Clove: “women who seem to have their s*** together”.  

Gold’s sapphic identity was never established in the comic before it was cancelled.  In the Silver Age arc, her only appearance, she was surrounded by boys and men - Silver the Hedgehog and Professor Von Schlemmer.  

Clove the Pronghorn is a lesbian.  

Aleah Baker has stated that Clove was intended to be written as a lesbian.  Her conflict with Sally and Lupe had “a mix of admiration of their leadership with a bit of a crushing angle”; that was Baker’s mentality when writing.  

However, there was “zero romantic angle” to Clove’s story, her lesbian identity was never acknowledged, and the comic ended before she could be put in a situation where romantic stuff would become relevant.  

Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf are in love with each other.  

The creative team at IDW Publishing is aware that people ship Tangle and Whisper, and has been leaning into it in subtle ways.  For example, Whisper’s tail wags rapidly when Tangle puts an arm around her.  

Flynn has explained that SEGA does not want the IDW comics to “go in-depth” with any romantic relationships - even Sonic and Amy are supposed to be “just very good friends”.  So in a similar vein, Tangle and Whisper have to be written as “really, really, really, really, really, really the bestest of friends.”  But hints are still being dropped.  

Amy Rose and Tekno the Canary got married and had a kid.  

In Sonic the Comic, Amy and Tekno were two Freedom Fighters and good friends who were sought out by the Ring of Eternity, a sentient dimensional warp which sent them on missions to right wrongs and fight injustice through time and space.  

In an issue of the fan continuation Sonic the Comic Online which was co-written by Nigel Kitchen (someone who contributed to the original series), a glimpse into the future reveals that Amy and Tekno will settle down together and have a son, and that Sonic will be his godfather.  

Given that Amy and Tekno also have a soft spot for the boys in their life (Sonic and Shortfuse, respectively), it could be said that they are bisexual in this continuity.  

Rouge the Bat and Topaz had something going on.  

When these two women first meet, Rouge asks Topaz what she likes to do with her handcuffs (a joke that was cut from the official English dub).  She also teases Topaz about her age and weight.  

However, it’s hinted that a more friendly, or even romantic, relationship has developed over time.  When the portal to Sonic’s world is powered up, Rouge gives Topaz a gem - “a steal” from the jewellery store - as a parting gift.  She then bids her companion farewell as she enters the portal, leaving Topaz weeping.  

Rouge could be considered to be bisexual, given her canonical interest in both Topaz and Knuckles.  

Emerald the Iguana is genderfluid, Crystal the Cat is bisexual, and Sapphire Flutterby is a lesbian.  (And Jewel the Beetle might be a lesbian too.)  

Emerald, Crystal and Sapphire are some of the “Jewel Crew” OCs created by Jennifer Hernandez.  They have made cameos in the IDW series now that Hernandez is an official Sonic artist.  And one year, for Pride Month, Hernandez posted a picture of the Jewel Crew waving various pride flags on Twitter.  So I’m counting them as official queer characters.  I know, it’s a bit of a cheat.  

Three of Hernandez’s OCs are queer, and the other two (Jade the Cat and Ruby Ringtail) are allies.  

One of the queer characters is Emerald, who is genderfluid.  Emerald used to have she/her pronouns, but I don’t know if that’s still the case.  

Secondly, Crystal (the pale pink cat) is bisexual, and Hernandez ships her with Mighty the Armadillo.  

Finally, Sapphire (the butterfly) is a lesbian, and Hernandez ships her with Jewel the Beetle, as seen in her Patreon art.  This could mean that Jewel is also a lesbian, or at least questioning her orientation.  

And there you have it!  All the (almost) canonically queer ladies of the Sonic franchise!  

[shadamyheadcanons]

hi!! so i’ve watched all of shadow and amy’s canon in game interactions (which are very cute, he honestly treats her so much differently than the others ?? like he’s def in love) and, it made me wonder, is there any interactions in the comics between the two that are like, cute?? i dunno LOL. i just crave more semi-canon shadamy. whenever i try to search it just shows me fan-made comics

I don’t know the comics super well, but I do sometimes track down an issue or two if I know Shadow and Amy are in it. Archie has this cool spin-off series called Sonic Universe that tells the stories that go on in the background that Sonic isn’t there for. I love it because it lets other characters--Amy, Shadow, Blaze, Knuckles, you name it--shine. I love Sonic himself, but there are certain dynamics you just can’t see when he’s around, particularly with Amy because he draws so much of her attention. When Sonic’s not around, though, Amy immediately makes a beeline for Shadow. She consistently seeks him out just as she does in the games, and that sticks out to me.

The one I always recommend first is the Treasure Team Tango arc.

It’s Sonic Universe issues 21-24. It’s the shippiest one I’ve found and features Amy playing the role of Shadow’s moral compass just as she did in SA2. In it, Amy leads a pseudo Team Rose--Blaze, Cream, and herself--in search of a Sol Emerald. Team Dark is in pursuit of it, too, and it’s up to Amy to make Shadow see the light and let Blaze have the Emerald her world so desperately needs. Amy and Shadow are at their peak. Blaze is awesome and perfectly in character. Cream and Cheese are adorable as always. Omega is at his funniest for a few reasons I won’t spoil. Unfortunately, Rouge isn’t written very well here, but other than that, the characters, plot, humor, and art are all on-point.

It also has Bean.

I like Bean.

To read it, click here.

Another one I’d recommend is the Shattered arc. It runs from issues 87 to 90, also from the Sonic Universe collection. Amy and Knuckles work with Team Dark to find some Master Emerald shards. It’s not as shippy as the other one, but Amy seeks Shadow out once again, and the two of them do get to squeeze in some childish teasing at the beginning.

Cute. How many characters can make Shadow pout like that? They fight well together later on, too.

This story focuses more on the strained relations between Shadow and Knuckles. Rouge acts as a mediator and tries to get them to play nice, and you can easily read it as “I just want my best friend and my boyfriend to get along for, like, ten minutes.”

Well...I read it that way, at least. Don’t know about anyone else. Rouge also makes peace with Amy here. These things are necessary for any future Knuxouge/Shadamy double dates, y’know?

It’s got good platonic interactions between Shadow and Knuckles, who have more in common than they’d like to admit. Omega is hilarious again. Rouge is a good friend this time around, which is exactly the kind of Rouge I like to see. The end has a really heartwarming conversation between Knuckles and Amy, too.

Not much Shadamy, but still worth a read. Here’s the link.

That’s all I know about for Archie.

IDW has one or two interactions, but Sega’s put such strict mandates on Shadow’s portrayal that Ian Flynn doesn’t like writing him in IDW, so he doesn’t include Shadow often. It’s a damn shame, too, because IDW Amy is great. Love her.

I’m still only 8 issues in. I do know of a couple panels where they show up together later, though I don’t know the context. First off, she almost runs him over at the start of issue #33:

To an outsider, Rouge seems like she’s being sarcastic, but...no. This really IS nice for IDW Shadow, especially considering Amy almost ran him over. He’d snap at most people for that. Notice how he’s civil to Amy but doesn’t even acknowledge Rouge, who’s supposed to be his...*checks notes*...best friend. And she doesn’t seem surprised. Yeah, we’ve fallen pretty far from Archie Shadow:

(To be clear, I photoshopped Amy in there. She fits pretty well, though, doesn’t she?)

Ian Flynn clearly knows how to write this guy, so I don’t know why Sega won’t let him do his thing. I’m still holding out hope that the third movie will nail Shadow’s character the way the second one did for Knuckles. Maybe then Sega could see the value of a more nuanced Shadow. It could happen, right?

The only other bit I know is this panel from issue #36:

I mean...I’m not quite in the camp of “Shadow is definitely in love with Amy” yet, but...if he’s not jealous, then what is this reaction? ;)

[lea-andres]

Tell us about the rarepair that got discovered by the show’s writers!

Hear that? That's the sound of all of my mutuals groaning, because

NEW PERSON ASKING ABOUT BUGBEAR~

(Also, technically it was the comic writers, but same difference lmao)

Okay... *Cracks her knuckles and her neck loudly* SO-

(Art by @hansuart)

This is BugBear, aka Jewel the Beetle and Bark the Polar Bear. I've been losing my absolute mind over this rarepair for... Two years now?

The two have NEVER canonically met, but the pair was inspired by @bitter-sweet-coffee reminding me this moment exists in the IDW Sonic comics:

(Jewel is 2'7" tall, that is Storm the Albatross holding her in that panel, he stands at 4'7" tall. Bark himself is 5'11" tall. This is all important to the madness.)

BSC and I had set out to make a gag ship for laughs initially. How funny would it be to see tiny Jewel paired up with one of the 4 foot plus, muscular characters? It'd be COMICAL-

Until we settled on Bark, and it instantly quit being funny.

Jewel is an anxious sweetheart, and Bark is a shy, soft spoken gentle giant. Both of them have crazy best friends they desperately attempt to wrangle (with little success). They deserve a quiet relationship where they don't have to constantly be on and ready for the other to do something completely insane and potentially dangerous.

Jewel would be a little afraid of Bark upon first meeting him, but she'd see the real him and warm up eventually.

Speaking of warming up, I like to play with the fact that the Sonic characters are animals and bring in what species are cold blooded and warm blooded into my shipping shenanigans. Who would make a better cuddle buddy than A MASSIVE POLAR BEAR???

Checkmate. 😎😂

We only have two fics right now over on AO3. One I'm writing (When the Day Met the Night), the other written by my lovely friend @stillafanofsonic . I will link to theirs, it's a one shot, vs my multichapter nonsense.

So, as for it being discovered by the comic writers... I took a brief peek at your blog and didn't see anything to indicate if you're in the Sonic fandom, so I will keep this brief. Ian Flynn is one of the main writers on the IDW Sonic comics. He also runs a podcast called the BumbleKast, and back on Valentine's Day they made the BOLD DECISION to discuss shipping. Oh boy...

Their guest... Commentator? (I don't go to podcasts typically, not certain what the terminology is for what the speakers are called. 🤷) @/pedanticat (Not sure if they want the tag, so I will spare them from being part of this essay for now.) brought up the ship during the episode, having either seen it floating around on here, or over on Twitter when I posted some art by hansuart and @seagull-scribbles (both posted with permission) over there. And like... BugBear isn't like some other rarer Sonic ships where a couple people might've had the idea independently of each other and it's hard to gauge who got there first. Unless I'm missing someone or something, I'M the first person to mention it, and the art that does exist of it exists because I infected the artists with the same brainrot... So... Oops...

The ship was brought up during the question at 46:03 (Have you ever seen shipping fanart of two Sonic characters that made you go "Huh, I never thought of that pairing, but I could see it working"?) But the exact timestamp it comes into discussion is at 49:11. "A crackship that isn't too crazy" was the verdict. I will take it and be annoying about it forever:

So, long story short... (TOO LATE!), that's how I made a rarepair that got discovered by the main comic people. 😎

Thank you for the question, I'm sorry you got an essay lmao.

[egg-emperor]

while i would say im personally not the biggest fan of the writing from the pontaff games, eggman was definitely my favorite character from that era. he was consistently written in character, funny, menacing, and just a total asshole. im a big fan of ian flynns eggman and have been since archie, but i really dont think its fair to say the pontaff era eggman is inherently inferior.

I totally respect not being the biggest fan of Pontaff Eggman and I think there are fair reasons for that, it's just unfortunate that a lot of people outright hate him all of a sudden despite how a lot of people used to agree he was the character they kept consistent and faithful the most of the entire cast. It used to feel like a fairly common opinion but now people completely ignore or put down all of Pontaff Eggman, despite the way it's dismissing a massive chunk of game Eggman as a result, over a decade's worth, which I feel was important and valuable and brought us some great portrayals and moments that are sadly overlooked or misunderstood now.

Pontaff personally aren't my favorite writers of all for Eggman but for me it's not for what they did write, it's what they didn't get to- which is hardly much of a criticism when it just comes to me thinking there was potential in some areas that weren't explored as far as I would've liked. And it's all plot related, not characterization in the slightest. I feel like in some Pontaff era games, Eggman could've and should've had a chance to shine more in some areas. But as script writers, they did their job well at understanding him and who he is, what he wants, how he thinks and feels and interacts with others, etc and capturing it well through dialogue.

But yeah I have a lot of high praise for them because I truly don't feel like there's literally a single moment and line written by them that felt out of character, and I've watched and analyzed it all over and over. They were great at writing his humor whether it was his silly goofiness or the darker more morbid aspects of it, I always find it very funny personally and their best of all are definitely the Eggman PAs in Colors, which I know a lot of people can agree on because they're pure gold. XD And the menacing threatening moments they got to write were fantastic, I actually even prefer their dialogue over some of the JP versions of the scenes in some cases. :O

I don't know why people have suddenly started acting like he was terrible because he's always been the most consistently well captured and written of all the characters. Classic, Adventure, and modern game era Eggman all feels the same to me, he isn't less evil and threatening than he was prior. It's just the overall story tone shift that makes the focus more on the humor in some games but Eggman's evil actions and goals aren't any less extreme and he isn't any less of an evil bastard. He's the funny evil asshole he's supposed to be, who can be silly but also pure diabolical evil and a serious threat. The balance is really well done in terms of characterization.

I also love Ian Flynn's Eggman, (which is why it's frustrating when people think I hate it or even Flynn himself just because of my criticisms. I criticize as much as I praise but people only pay attention to the former) game Eggman as a whole will always be my favorite version with my favorite writing over everything else, though I have to give credit where it's due. I really adore a big chunk of what he wrote in Archie when I felt it was accurate to game Eggman and there was actually a lot of that. Same goes for IDW Eggman. And even Frontiers Eggman now! I do think he understands a lot about him and I agree on a lot of his takes and his best work is some of my absolute favorites in all Eggman media.

So yeah I don't think it's fair to say Pontaff Eggman is inherently inferior either, their Eggman characterization wise isn't any less accurate than Ian Flynn's best work on it. I personally think Pontaff has been more consistent because my only sort of criticisms with Pontaff era Eggman lie in the story aspects, while with Ian Flynn's it's the actual characterization that I have some criticisms on in some cases, but I think both of them do equally great in all the things I enjoy and praise. But people seem to be quicker to overlook, ignore, or deny Pontaff's writing's qualities over Flynn's which is sad. I wish people would look back to see they're judging too harshly.

It makes me sad when people trash Pontaff Eggman to me on my posts, videos, or inbox because their Eggman has been so precious and loved by me for 12 years, I get endless joy and entertainment of him and always will. 💔 The insistence by a large majority of the fandom that Pontaff Eggman had next to nothing going for him isn't fair and I think they're missing out a lot in recognizing the great entertainment and characterization their writing brought to him, I wish they'd reconsider instead of acting like he sucks and Flynn "fixed" him. Game Eggman has always been great and has never stopped! Because he's wonderfully consistent.

Of course it's pretty obvious that game Eggman as a whole is my absolute favorite of all time and is the main form of inspiration behind all my fan creations as a result- but Ian Flynn's Eggman inspired me a lot too, all the way back from Archie and deserves credit. People deny that game Eggman is as evil as my favorite parts of Archie Egg- but I like them specifically because they feel accurate to game Eggman to me. And I know game Egg is evil enough of a bastard to do all of those evil things he does in Archie that I love so much too and he does in fact do stuff on that level in the games, the stories just often have a more lighter hearted tone overall.

Anyway I love and adore Eggman portrayals as long as he's both funny and also a threatening evil asshole and I think both Pontaff and Ian Flynn both do a great job at capturing that in their best works. When the humor makes me laugh and the threatening evil moments bring me great excitement and a thrill, especially when Eggman gets extra fucked up in both his humorous moments and his serious threatening ones, such as the darker humor and the darkest threatening moments Eggman for example that both have delivered in great amounts- that makes a damn good Eggman portrayal hehe 🥰 It's all super entertaining and appreciated!

Oops this turned into gushing about both because I couldn't help myself lol, I'm very passionate about it 💜

[dracolunae]

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT SONIC lay it on me. sits head in hands attenative mode

I’ll just give you a general ramble of whatever I can think of but if you wanna know anything specific like lore or the different comic runs or stuff about the music lmk!!

Sonic is a franchise that I’ve found so fucking fascinating for a long time because it combines just so many fun things: a mostly non-human cast, intricate world building a continuity between games, interesting abilities, and a protagonist that is not only cool and fast and heroic but also a wildly fascinating personality!

My start into Sonic was, ironically, not any of the actual mainline games or anything because my ass was a DS kid with no consoles. It wasn’t even one of the mainline DS games! My start was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the DS.No clue of any lore, all I knew was that this franchise had really interesting character designs and was really cool because YO IS THAT A ROBOT??? (I was also. Very into the transformers movies at the time so robots were fucking awesome).

Anyway, from there my brother and I shared a copy of Sonic Colours for the DS! Sonic Colours for the Wii is often regarded as one the better if not one of the best modern Sonic Games with unfortunately really bad writing but fear not! That’s where the DS version comes in! Entirely different gameplay wise since in that sense it’s a continuation of the earlier Rush games but the story is nearly identical to the Wii version except there’s more of it and the characters are significantly better written!

It’s pretty common to make jokes about people who play games for the plot but honestly the plot is really one of the main draws of Sonic for me! The Adventure era (Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and kind of Sonic 06) had overarching story elements and would legitimately flash back to what happened in previous games, which at the time (1998-2006) was huge!

There’s also several runs of comics and manga as well as several tv shows that accompanied the franchise, most of which are entirely non-canon to the games but still add so much to the characters and in some ways the world.

The original 2 shows and Comic runs were Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (more commonly known as Sonic SatAM), the Sonic Archie comics and Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway. The shows were both made simultaneously by the same people and a lot of elements from both (though mainly SatAM, the grittier of the 2) were adapted into the Archie Comics. Sonic the Comic (more often referred to as Fleetway) was the British run of Sonic Comics and while Archie went kinda wild with a lot of stuff, Fleetway did so in a way that was less insane and more just incredibly contradictory to the games, such as changing the way that Super Sonic worked (it splits Sonic into 2 different beings instead of just being like a Dragonball Super Saiyan inspired power up) and also entirely changing the design and origins of Chaos, the additional antagonist of Sonic Adventure.

Both Fleetway and Archie have been canceled, Fleetway quite a while ago and Archie in 2017, which has brought a new Comic into the scene, published by IDW! The staff is comprised almost entirely of former Archie Sonic staff, who were pulled over by head writer Ian Flynn, who took over this position for Archie in 2006 and was hired by IDW pretty immediately once they got the comic license for Sonic. These comics directly tie into what was at the time the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Forces, and are confirmed to be canon, unlike literally every other piece of extended media we’ve ever gotten!

The American Sonic comics are very dear to me because I used to read them a lot (in what is possibly the most annoying way one could possibly read them, YouTube videos panning through incredibly slow pans of each individual page or panel). And the staff post Ian Flynn takeover is fascinating to me because a decent chunk of it consists of Sonic fans that started out as fancomic artists, got recognised for their talent and then hired to work on the real deal! What kind of Dream job is that???? The amount of passion the current staff has for the world of Sonic is palpable and so refreshing. Ian Flynn also got to write the story for the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers and holy shit I love the way he respects the previous world building done by older games. It might come off a little awkward to some but I’m just glad they’re acknowledging their past

With all my love for the comics tho I gotta say the Archie comics are a wild fucking trip, especially when Ken Penders had free reign of the plot. I’m rereading the Archie comics and I skipped over the first 60 or so issues the first time I read them as a kid and wtf???? Why did I just read about a bee dying of an LSD overdose???? (Yes. This is a real plot point. It is relevant for one 3 issues side arc and never again)

[greenyvertekins]

I read your post about Ian wanting to canonize his concepts and characters and I was wondering one thing: excluding IDWs how much decision making power does Ian have on a series he has never participated in, written or helped in any way such as the animated series of X or the entire Boom series, even if he only wrote one episode of Boom, or the character of Sonic in general? What I mean is that he "created" his own vision of what Sonic might be temperamentally like but you always need SEGA's approval to approve certain new aspects of the character right ? Ian didn't create Sonic or the original cast and let's be clear I have nothing against Tangle, Whisper and Sticks I would love to see them in canon games but for Ian his main section is IDW right? So how much decision-making power does he have? In addition I really appreciated the emotional (finally for Sonic they give more freedom) and deep growth of the main characters you?

X was a thing a good few years before Flynn ever started working on Archie. It's ambiguous. At ST at least.

[silverdragon128]

Now that I’ve mentioned Sonic content on my blog (aside from a reblog two years ago), let’s get this over with.

Reasons Sonic Fans Will Hate Me:

1. I will forever defend both infamous slaps from the Archie series. I think they’re genuine powerful moments that were important for both perpetrators (Sally and Fiona) in addressing just how far they’d fallen

2. I think with proper time and funding Sonic 06 would’ve been an absolutely phenomenal game. And, while I hate Sonic’s story, I think the overall story is one of the strongest of the game series (though it’s weak compared to anything written by the comics team since 2006 and it’s a weak story by normal standards) and it’s by far one of the best characterizations of Shadow in the games

3. I… don’t think Sonic should date anyone. He just doesn’t seem particularly romantically inclined. I’m sure there’s a ship out there that’ll change my mind, but for now I like the idea of ace/aro Sonic

4. Going back to Archie… I’m actually a big fan of much of Karl Bollers work. I don’t think he’s as good as Ian Flynn and company, but he’s a billion times better than Penders. Most of what held him back was editorial (fuck Gabrie and his love triangle obsession), the slated size of his stories (after the cancellation of the Knuckles title, most issues of STH featured two or three stories, heavily restricting the size of the main story down to, like, 10 pages), and the simple fact that Penders was the other main writer at the time (the toxic work environment was insane, Penders literally attacked Bollers for changes he made and stories he wrote, plus… Penders’ contributions were… fairly weak tbh)

5. Despite it being the first Sonic game I ever played, I… don’t really like Heroes. The gameplay doesn’t vibe with me and the story… well… barely exists (Neo Metal Sonic’s cool though)

6. I’m actually pretty positive about the franchise, and always have been. I never bought into the “Sonic has always sucked” bs, and have always been hoping for a brighter future.

All that being said… I don’t want any discourse here. I’m not super engaged with the fandom, and I don’t intend to be. I’m mostly laying all of this out so people are aware regarding anything I reblog or post about. It’s mostly gonna be regarding the comics (been loving the IDW stuff) though I very much keep up with the game franchise, and have been loving these latest entries (screw Forces though)

[sage-nebula]

Look man, there's nothing wrong with disliking someone's writing. Sometimes a writer's style or content is just not for you, and that's okay! It's okay even when the writer is super popular. For instance, I myself am not a fan of Tolkien or Neil Gaiman. Tokien takes way too long to get to the point for me, and at least in American Gods, Gaiman just used too many metaphors in quick succession, which made me feel the writing was pretentious to its detriment. It was Pratchett's style that made me love Good Omens, not Gaiman's.

Of course, that's not to say these men were / are bad writers! They're wildly beloved for a reason, after all. It's just to say their styles aren't for me. This happens sometimes. It's okay.

So when it comes to Sonic writer Ian Flynn, not everyone has to like his work. Heck, there are things he's written that I myself don't care for, such as:

The House of Cards arc in Archie

Sonic not correcting Kit when Kit called him "sir" in IDW

How the conflict between Tangle and Whisper was resolved in #58

Belle somehow knowing who Surge and Kit were despite Metal Sonic not knowing that

No writer on this planet is perfect, and that includes Ian Flynn. Good faith criticism of his work is natural, and from what I've heard on the Bumblekast (and I've listened to a good number of episodes at this point) he takes good faith criticism very well.

You'll notice, though, that I said good faith criticism. There is a difference between good faith criticism, and bad faith attacks. Here are some examples of each:

Good Faith Criticism:

I feel that [character] was written out of character in [thing] when you consider recent characterization in other things (with emphasis on recent; games that came out 16 years ago may no longer align with Sega's view of the character)

I think that the writing was a little sloppy here for the sake of speeding the plot along

I don't enjoy this plot arc because of the pacing / the themes / the characters being focused on

These are good faith criticisms because they don't attack the person or people who created the work; they make sure to note that this is personal opinion / preference on behalf of the critic; and they're grounded in reality, rather than conspiracy.

Bad Faith Criticism:

The writer on this licensed product HATES the IP and HATES these characters and wants to make them something totally different

All of the writers on staff are LYING when they say the company that owns the license they are working on has rules they have to follow

The writers have an AGENDA they're pushing and that's the ONLY reason why they're working on this licensed product at all; if they say they're doing it for love of the series or work they are lying once again

These are bad faith criticisms because they attack the people who make the works directly; they contain baseless accusations as a form of defense against the idea that the parent company could be moving their mascot and characters in a new direction; and altogether they paint the writers as some sort of nefarious masterminds instead of what they actually are: people who are fallible.

And then of course, there is always something so unhinged it's even worse than the above:

Heinous Behavior:

I hope [writer] dies and I'll celebrate when they do!

This sort of behavior isn't even criticism. It's just heinous, and I shouldn't need to explain why. Disliking someone's work is fine. Talking about why you dislike the work is fine. Wishing death on someone because you dislike their work (or dislike that people enjoy their work) is deplorable behavior. When you are at this stage, you need to log off the internet and go sit alone in a quiet place to reflect upon your behavior. Also, if a children's comic (or discussions about a children's comic) is making you this deranged, perhaps consider seeking counseling, because this sort of reaction to a franchise about a blue hedgehog is not healthy.

Overall, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to engage with media. If a piece of media is making you seethe with rage to the point where other people enjoying it makes you think wishing death on an innocent person is okay, you should probably find another piece of media to engage with. It's not difficult to not read a comic or block fans whose opinons upset you. Actually, it's quite easy and I recommend it.

Be decent to each other. That's all anyone asks.

[tenebraevesper]

King Shadow (The Altered Future & The Altered Character)

I told myself I wouldn’t do it. I told myself I wouldn’t touch Mobius 25/30 Years Later with a 10 foot pole,... and I still did it. It doesn’t help that, if I don’t count Worlds Collide, which I read mainly because of MegaMan, Mobius 25/30 Years Later (written by Ian Flynn) was actually the first Archie Sonic comic I have read.

Yeah, this was my first real introduction to Archie!Sonic... and it wasn’t a good first impression.

Honestly, kudos to people who like the 25/30YL storyline, but I can barely stomach it without wanting to close the comic after the first page, step back and just forget this story ever existed. So, why am I analyzing it even though I clearly don’t like it?

It is mainly to write down my own grievances regarding one particular character featured in the story - Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow is someone who had his ups and downs when it came to writing his character, with SEGA aiming to make him the Stock Shōnen Rival to Sonic’s Stock Shōnen Hero. While I don’t have a problem with that (and I love their rivalry), I do have an issue when they make him act like an idiot who thinks he’s invincible.

Frankly, IDW!Shadow may not be the best written iteration of The Ultimate Lifeform, but I still like him, especially since he does show to have a softer side. Same goes for Boom!Shadow, who only exists to be Sonic’s rival, but I always looked forward to seeing him show up. To me, both are certainly more appealing that the iteration I’m going to talk about in this analysis. 

So, if you don’t want to read about me ranting about an iteration of a character from a comic that has been deader than dead and won’t be continued thanks to a certain someone, you’re free to leave now. This is your last warning.

As for those who stayed... You’ll be greeted with what I personally consider the worst characterization of Shadow in any media (be it the video games, comics or TV series).

You want Edgelord Shadow? This is Edgelord Shadow.

Before I start, I need to do a quick recap regarding the Mobius 25/30 Years Later story. 25/30YL is a continuation of the initial 25YL storyline written by the most despised Sonic Archie writer in the whole community, Ken Penders. If you want more information on why he’s so despised, I recommend listening to Sonic_Speed’s commentary on what had happened.

After Penders left, Ian Flynn took over as the main writer, and his first year of writing can be basically described as him doing janitorial duty and trying to fix the mess the previous writers left behind, streamlining the story and bringing it more in line with the games. He wrote some really amazing storylines, like Hedgehog Havoc and Worlds Collide, but not all of his stories were good, like House of Cards (aka the one where Sonic and Tails fight; something Ian himself acknowledged wasn’t his best writing).

One of the stories Ian worked on was the above mentioned 25/30YL storyline, aka the continuation to the story Penders wrote, and I have to ask: who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to continue 25YL? I’m not asking that because 25YL was a good story or something - in fact, it was the worst! It was so awful, so boring, with the characters just talking and doing absolutely nothing. As for the ending... What ending? There is no ending, just a metaphor for how awfully Sonic was treated at the time, being literally ripped apart.

I also have other issues with the story, but those are more subjective. For example, it just felt wrong to see Sonic be a King, be married to Sally, have kids... I know that some people don’t have issues with that, but I simply cannot see a character who has been described as a free spirit, who doesn’t want to be tied down by anything, have to deal with this. 

As a side-note, I have absolutely zero issues with Sonic being a King, considering how I loved the reveal of him being King Arthur, the true King of Camelot in Sonic and The Black Knight. I guess it helps that SaTBK is also a much better story than 25YL, allowing Sonic to be who he is at his core.

So, in short, someone told Ian to fix 25YL... and it’s not good. I know Ian’s a good writer, but not even he could fix 25YL. I also sincerely apologize to everyone for what I’m about to drag you into. This was really painful to read.

So, 25YL (Flynn Edition) kicks off with establishing how King Sonic fixed the world from collapsing by travelling back in time. The result of it was the future being changed, though, and we’re greeted with this:

*stares numbly at the page*

I’m not even going to pretend I don’t know who did this for the sake of suspension. This is just ridiculous.

Shadow, why the hell did you set up a statue of Maria as an angel and made the Mobians worship her?! I agree with Tails here - this isn’t right, but for completely different reasons. The first page made me already want to close this comic and never touch it again, but alas, I must soldier on.

The comic establishes that Shadow is the current King of Mobius, with Knuckles as his enforcer, which just feels weird (and I always imagined Shadow to be more of a Knight than a King).

We then finally meet his Highness for the first time, King Shadow, decked out in full royal regalia and torturing an older Rotor. After not getting any answer, he leaves the room, and is met by OC!Echidna Lien-Da (I don’t like her), thanking her for bringing Rotor over to be interrogated.

*sighs*

Okay, this is King Shadow’s first appearance and alarms are already blaring in my head. I cannot overstate enough just how wrong and painful this feels to see and read. It’s like someone grabbed Shadow and just brainwashed him into this dictatorial and militaristic version of himself who just screams “I’m the bad guy!”.

You know what’s funny, tho? I actually don’t think that King Shadow is wrong as a concept. As a matter of fact, we already had Shadow deciding to conquer the world in the video game Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), that being in the True Dark Ending - Dark Mission (where he decides to destroy the world because he gave up on humanity), the Dark Ending - Dark Mission (where he sides with Black Doom and becomes his enforcer), the True Dark Ending - Hero Mission (where he overthrows Black Doom and decides to conquer the universe), the Neutral Ending - Hero Mission (where he is - somehow - convinced he’s an android and decides to take down the Eggman Empire and make androids rule Earth).

So, yeah, Conqueror Shadow isn’t a new concept, but the difference is that in ShtH, it is at least somewhat explained that he’s either brainwashed (either by Black Doom or Prof. Gerald) and/or has given up on humanity... or thinks he’s an android (probably still influenced by the events of Sonic Heroes, but not less weird). The point here that is that there seems to be a somewhat solid explanation to why he has snapped (and Snapcube has him decide to become the President of USA/King of Hell, and I would legit vote for him).

King Shadow, on the other hand, feels like someone flipped a switch. He just woke up one day and chose violence, and it is really uncomfortable to see him like this.

Here’s also a little tidbit I found on the Sonic Wiki:

Ian has stated that there is no official reason for why Shadow became a tyrannical ruler after killing Eggman and destroying his empire.

So, yeah, King Shadow really did wake up and chose violence.

So, to continue, after he talks to Lien-Da about “thanking” Rotor, King Shadow reveals how he cannot lose this world, and how he had done too much good for it to be stopped now.

Okay, this is actually kind of interesting. King Shadow sees himself as some sort of heroic figure, using his militaristic forces to stop any kind of conspiracies against him so he can keep on ruling. He wants to protect the planet by controlling it, which I think is actually an interesting idea.

Obviously, his rule isn’t going to last much longer, since King Sonic is back and ready to kick ass... and honestly, I’m seriously debating whether I want to show the next image, because it just gets worse.

You know what, screw it.

I bet you haven’t thought you’d see Sonic as a hobo. Neither was I. Nothing could prepare me for this. Sonic is just there, sitting, doing nothing, throwing himself a pity party.

This is so wrong on so many levels. The Sonic I know wouldn’t allow this to happen. Instead, he would run right up to the castle, kick the doors down and fight Shadow in an attempt to set things right... not this.

There is also a nice moment between him and Tails (and later a nice scene with Knuckles), but let’s skip ahead to the next part. Again, this is supposed to be an analysis on King Shadow, with some added bits that had personally irked me (Hobo!Sonic being the prime example), not a whole plot analysis like I do with IDW!Sonic.

After finding his resolve to fight back, Sonic and Knuckles burst into the throne room, finding King Shadow and Queen Sally. Now, we learn later that Sally basically married Shadow to bring some balance and stability to the kingdom, and protect it from his tyrannical rule (not seeing any success here, Sal), but I have to ask: Why? Why was this necessary? Like, I may not be a fan of Sally, but I know that she is a fighter, so why didn’t she try to lead a rebellion against Shadow? She did the same when SatAM!Robotnik was around, so did she just give up?

I mean, I understand that Shadow is pretty much one of the strongest characters in the Archie!Universe, but still... nothing? No resistance?

Oh, and speaking of Robotnik/Eggman:

It was hinted at that Shadow took down Eggman before becoming king. When writer Ian Flynn was asked how Eggman died in the Light Mobius universe, he said "Any events happening between the present and the maybe-future will be teased at best. That said, the original M25YL revealed that Knuckles vaporized Eggman and had to be stopped by Sonic. I figure the same events unfolded but with Shadow replacing Sonic."

So, I guess that’s answered. I still don’t like the execution.

Moving on, Knuckles gets Sally out of the throne room, while Sonic fights Shadow. Shadow easily dodges it, sneering at Sonic.

This is followed by Shadow throwing away his cape and beating Sonic up, telling Sonic how he’s old and past his prime, and how as The Ultimate Lifeform, he never ages... so, Vegeta moment? 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

In any case, Sonic is beaten, and I’m asking again... Why? Sure, at this point, Sonic is in his 40s (still can’t believe I’m saying that, it feels so weird), but I’m pretty sure he can still fight. Hell, Shadow didn’t even use his Chaos Powers, so why couldn’t Sonic at least put up a proper fight, even if he does lose at the end?

I know that I’m just complaining here, but compare the fight above to this one:

I don’t know about you, but I prefer their fight in IDW more. Not only were they on equal footing, but this fight was less about Shadow proving himself to be superior, and more a challenge of their ideals, with Shadow insisting on killing Mr. Tinker and Sonic wanting to keep Mr. Tinker alive. Yeah, Sonic still loses (thanks to tripping on a root), but it still feels more satisfying than him being knocked down in a spin-dash, kick to the gut and punch to the face.

So, how is King Shadow defeated then?

In comes Lara-Su (to note, she’s not among my favorite characters), Knuckles’ daughter, who dodges Shadow’s attacks and goads him into using his Chaos Powers while also demonstrating her own.

Shadow throws Chaos Spears at her, which Lara-Su deflects, chanting Tikal’s prayer and using Chaos Control on Shadow, freezing him in place.

I don’t really know what to say about this. It is just... anti-climactic. Like, would Shadow really lose like this?

*shakes head*

You know what, I at least gotta give credit to Ian Flynn for trying to clean up the mess Penders left behind, but this story is just not my cup of tea. Shadow feels just wrong and Hobo!Sonic wasn’t something I wanted to see.

So, is that it? No more 25YL? No more King Shadow?

I’m sorry to inform you, but it’s not over yet. We still have 30YL and I’m still asking: why is anyone going back to this story?

I will let Sasha Cat sum up what happened:

Honestly, the expression she made about the wedding between Shadow and Sally mirrored my own. I hate it.

However, I do like the fact that Shadow is using the Black Arms logo as his symbol during the conquest. Black Doom must be proud of him.

Anyways, to sum up events, King Sonic and Queen Sally are happily married, Lien-Da and her mooks try to assassinate the royal couple, Lara-Su and Silver keep them safe, Sonic goes back into action in an attempt to deal with the situation, so Lien-Da calls for reinforcements:

King Shadow is back for Round 2! I have to admit, 30YL is definitely better than 25YL, but only by a small margin, and I still don’t like it. Not to mention, this Sonic Universe story came out right after The Shadow Saga, a fantastic arc where Shadow came to terms with who he is, internalizing how, even if he gets kicked down, he can learn from his mistakes and get back up, and formed Team Dark together with Rouge and Omega.

It is really jarring to just have King Shadow shoved right after an arc that developed his past/alternate self as a character. Like sure, here’s Shadow, who just had a moment of self-reflection, relying on his friends to help him, and here’s King Shadow, who wants to rule Mobius with an iron fist and fear.

As a side-note, tho, I like this cover. Not gonna lie, King Shadow does look badass in this pose.

Anyways, going back into the main plot, Lien-Da fills Shadow in on what happened after Lara-Su froze him with Chaos Control. Shadow is shocked that five years have passed, then walks away and tells Lien-Da to keep talking.

Lien-Da is ready to help King Shadow regain control over Mobius, but King Shadow refuses, much to her confusion (and I’m not gonna comment on the “Maria’s Wish” code; it has really uncomfortable implications), and explains how this world needs to be punished for its inaction.

Lien-Da is shocked when she sees what Shadow plans on using.

It is a glass orb filled with a green liquid, with Shadow calling out for Tikhaos. We see a shape in the form of none other but Tikal, being lonely and hungry, with Shadow promising to release her. Lien-Da pleads with Shadow not to do this.

Lien-Da tells him how she released Shadow to bring back his stern rule and to not release Tikhaos (which I assume to be a fusion of Tikal and Chaos, although I have no clue how she came to exist).

Shadow, clearly having enough of Lien-Da’s protests, asks her about the armband, which protects her from the shift in the time-line. Side note:

Ian Flynn revealed in an Ask Ian podcast that Shadow's knowledge of events in the previous timeline was due to Lien-Da's information.

When Lien-Da confirms this, Shadow just breaks it off, causing Lien-Da to vanish from existence. Okay, I didn’t like her, but this is kinda brutal. He basically killed her... or maybe she doesn’t even exist in this future?

Shadow then turns to Tikhaos, smirking as she tells her how it’s time to reintroduce her to the world. Honestly, seeing Shadow like this isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s plain disturbing. He looks like a maniac, as if something in his mind just snapped.

Tikhaos begs for Chaos Energy, which Shadow is happy to supply, removing his Inhibitor Ring and not caring anymore when he’s told that King Sonic has retaken the castle.

“Let him have it. It does him no good now.”

He forcefully feeds Tikhaos more energy than she can handle, with the echidna mooks running away when they realize that King Shadow is going to destroy them all, while Shadow remains calm, completely serene.

Again, I’m actually disturbed by this behavior. Are we sure that Black Doom hasn’t brainwashed him somehow?

Anyways, Tikhaos has turned into a complete monster resembling Perfect Chaos and is attacking the city, leaving Sonic and co. to deal with her. As for King Shadow:

He apologizes to Maria for what he has done. He tried to lead by example, but when they didn’t see it, he tried to lead by force. He was rejected. He wanted to bring peace, but the world demanded chaos, so he’ll let Tikhaos ravage the world, wash it clean and let it suffer... and when they learned their lesson, he will return to lead them to peace he desperately wanted for them.

Absolutely not a fan of this. It feels so forced, especially since the last Sonic Universe arc was about Shadow moving on. I love Ian Flynn’s writing, but this is one of the worst stories I’ve read that he had written.

And this is also the last we see of King Shadow.

Honestly, I’m glad Worlds Collide happened and changed the universe. I really didn’t want to see more of this. Not to mention, Post-SGW!Shadow is a real treat.

So, King Shadow? What are my thoughts on him now after re-reading the story?

Honestly, he’s a good concept, but the execution is awful. Even though Shadow as a conqueror exists in the Shadow the Hedgehog video game, we still know that those paths aren’t canon to the main story. The Shadow we know is a protector of the world, but he wouldn’t go this far to protect it, becoming a villain. King Shadow really comes off as unhinged and his personality switch feels like it came out of nowhere.

Again, if you like this story, more power to you, but I don’t. To me, this is the worst Shadow has ever been written. It just feels so unnecessary, so wrong... and I’m glad it doesn’t exist anymore.

If you guys want my thoughts on how I would write a King Shadow story, leave a comment and I might write down the concept for it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch Sonic Prime. I need to clear my mind of what I just read and I just want to see Shadow trying to save the world without being a villain.

EDIT: Here’s my own take on the King Shadow storyline:

#King Shadow (The Alternate Story)

An alternate take to the Light Mobius story:

Isekai'd As My Past Self (Sonic the Hedgehog AU Story)

#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer (Masterlist)

[thankskenpenders]

What is it about Ian Flynn that some people don't like about him? I get that his writing isn't perfect, but they seem to go out of their way to interpret him in bad faith. He's not a weirdo like Penders, he's just a silly little guy

As much as I've complained about his rabid haters, on some level I do get being unsatisfied with the current state of the franchise (in a civil manner) if you aren't personally a fan of his writing. On top of writing for the comics for 16 years and helming their last two continuity reboots, he's also written for the cartoons, the web shorts, the Encyclo-speed-ia, and now he's even writing Sonic's big open world debut on current gen consoles. I love the guy's writing in the comics, so all of this makes me happy, but it's all subjective. If you aren't a fan, then I do get that it's starting to feel like his is the only voice that matters right now in Sonic. (Even if Evan has taken over as lead writer on the comics, and the movies have nothing to do with him.) Like, Ian's not above criticism. I've criticized some of his writing in the past, and he listens to it and tries to learn from his missteps

But... a relatively small number of very persistent people online have taken it so far beyond a simple difference in opinions, or fair criticism of his work, and turned it into an obsession. And it's been happening since the early years of his Archie run

A lot of it is typical culture war shit from far right reactionaries who think he's trying to infect Sonic with his liberal agenda. The kind of people who think he personally broke up Sonic and Sally just to make Sally sapphic for "woke points." (Some of the conspiracy boards these people make are truly fucking unhinged.) But you can also see some left wing Sonic fans on this very website writing aggressive, essay-length circlejerk discussions about how Sonic not wanting to personally execute Mr. Tinker is Nazi apologia or what the fuck ever, and how the zombie virus arc with no blood or gore where nobody actually dies and everyone throws a big party at the end is apparently the most inappropriately adult thing anyone has ever written for Sonic. (But Eggman's grandpa going insane in prison and getting executed by firing squad is hunky-dory.) I've had to block people for derailing my posts into that shit. People love to nitpick every little thing the guy does, to blow up small critiques into a matter of life or death, to blame him for random shit that isn't his fault like misplaced images in the Encyclo-speed-ia, to take things he's said wildly out of context, to straight up fabricate fake screenshots of things he's never said, to accuse him of lying about shit he has no reason to lie about, and much, much more. It just never fucking ends

To the loudest, most persistent detractors, it's not about the actual quality of his writing. It's all confirmation bias. They think he personally broke up their favorite ships, or that he didn't fight hard enough to get the Freedom Fighters into the IDW comics, or that he's an SJW, or that he just doesn't get Sonic the way they do and that his opinions are wrong. So they're constantly looking for any new ammo they can get against the guy that will confirm these beliefs and passing it around to each other, because hating him has been a hobby for them for years at this point

[beevean]

I'm someone who's more on the sidelines but I'm personally sick and tired of seeing Ian Flynn being involved in official Sonic media and fans demanding he be THE one to handle whatever comes out next I want to see other people give their takes on the character and franchise, like with the Sonic Boom cartoon and the movie, and not one just one guy's over and over again. I groaned the second I saw that he was apparently hired as a consultant for Sonic Prime,-

conti- as if he's THE authority on Western produced Sonic media. Not only that, but I think he's just overrated as a writer in general. He is not good at long term, overarching story arcs and plots. The pacing problems in the Metal Virus arc isn't a new problem with his writing. I still can't get into the Archie comics even post-Penders and post-reboot because the pacing of his long story arcs just drags on, and in the Metal Virus arc's case becomes redundant every issue.

Yeah...

The love some people have for this guy, I just can't understand it. It may be mean, but I doubt they'd defend Pontaff with the same fervor if they were tasked to work on the Encyclospeedia and made a dozen of stupid mistakes. (20 rings to access the special stage, really, what the hell)

I don't reblog posts about Sonic's characterization just to dunk on Flynn, but mainly because I love Sonic as a character and I like reading people's interpretations on that. He's a great character, and so simple to get! But I won't deny, that when they announced that Flynn would write for Frontiers, and almost everyone started celebrating because yayyy pontaff is gone we have a great sonic writer now! praise chaos!!, well, I felt left behind. When I think of Flynn, I think of someone who's deadset on turning Sonic into a hero he was never meant to be, I think of someone who doesn't have much respect for the main villain after it took 10 years to gain it back from the fans, I think of someone who destroyed a great relationship and reintroduced a stupid cliché that should have died in 2008 for the sake of pushing his OC (poor Starline did not deserve to turn into Snively 2.0, I liked him better when he was a simp), I think of someone who had the ball rolling for a whole year before completely falling apart in plot and characterization... so I'll just say, I'm not happy either that this dude is gaining this much hegemony in the franchise. And the fact that Frontiers' premise already includes Eggman fucking up just like in the good ol' days? Written by someone who went into detail about how he thinks "Eggman never had a solid plan"? boy ._.

Also, wasn't he the one who wrote the "House of Cards" arc in Archie? The one where Sonic deadass says the words "The kid worships me, he'll get over it" referring to Tails? You telling me he was forced by some mandates even back then? Yeah, HOC is old now, but hey, Colors will turn 12 this year and fans still complain about Baldy McNosehair as if Sonic couldn't shut up about it, I don't feel guilty :V

Now, to be fair... We still know almost nothing about Frontiers, and we have about a year to get some previews. I don't want to immediately assume Frontiers' story will be trash just because I resent IDW. Writing for a main game is different than writing for a comic, so who knows. But I wonder what happened to Shiro Maekawa, for instance...

[idw-sonic-fan-blog]

The Mandates

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the pro-ported mandates because they cast a shadow on this comic.

“Game characters cannot have relatives unless they were estabilished in the game canon, i.e. Cream and her mother.”

This one is understandable and you can blame Penders for this. Mind you that most licensed comics of gaming franchises don’t actually delve too much in personal family relationships or expand on them. So this is expected and honestly Sega should have put the screws on Archie decades ago about this.

“Game characters can not die. There are workarounds for this, such as being Mistaken for Dying or "Mistaken For Dead”

Again. Yes. Not a big deal.

“Game characters cannot have wardrobe changes unless approved. Chao Races and Badnik Bases has some characters (mainly the female game characters) wear different clothes for extreme conditions. Male characters remain the same.”

This is a useless rule but whatever. I mean Sega, you are the ones putting bad wardrobe choices on the characters so again it’s whatever.

“Sonic can't be shown getting too emotional (i.e;cry)”

This is one that it complained about because it really wouldn’t matter unless it is called attention to. A lot of superheroes don’t cry. But that doesn’t prohibit them from expressing themselves. IDW Sonic has been sad. He has been pissed. He has been furious.

Is this not too emotional?

Is he not expressing himself appropriately?

I don’t even know why this is brought up. When in this comic has Sonic not been expressive or displaying the appropriate amount of emotion? When did Sonic needing to cry be necessary?

“Game characters cannot enter in a relationship.”

Oh GOD YES. Don’t threaten me with a good time.

“All major Character Development must be approved by SEGA.”

Yeah, of course. Let me remind you that Penders and Archie ruined any strand of trust Sega could have in comic media. They played loose at first and all of the sudden, they are involved in a lawsuit about characters in a Sonic comic that they didn’t even know about. They probably lost a video game business relationship because of it. If they want to be involved in the comics, fine. That means that they are now forced to World Build. They have to invest in it now and not just be like Lucas Films and let anybody do anything with their flagship title.

“Much like the post-reboot of the Archie comic, the words "Mobius" is banned—the planet is simply called "Sonic's World". Unlike the Post-Boot, which allowed the names "Mobian" and "Mobini", anything related to Mobius is banned in this comic.”

…Of course but how about you throw the writer’s a bone and I don’t know, name the fucking planet. If it is not Earth, give it a name.

“Sonic must always win at the end. Even if he and his friends are at the losing end in an overarching story (the Metal Virus arc, for example), they must come out on top when it concludes.”

I don’t even get this rule and the knee jerk hatred for it. Why even have it? Why even share the existence of this rule? Archie Sonic didn’t really lose too bad. It’s more on how you frame a victory. The fact of the matter is that Eggman is still actively trying to conquer the planet. Sonic stops him but Eggman still has control of land and has military installations all over.

This rule is offset by this. While Sonic can’t lose, Sonic can’t completely win.

“Characters and material from other licensed properties (Sonic the Comic, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)', Sonic Underground, the OVA, Sonic X and the Paramount films cannot be used. This rule extends to characters and redesigns done by the current writers. The only exception is Sticks from Sonic Boom, and that's because she was created by SEGA themselves and showed up in non-Boom media, but any ideas regarding her use still need to be okayed by SEGA.”

First off I am glad that Sticks was spared by this rule and I look forward to her eventual inclusion. Second, again, this is not much of a big deal as it was expected. Sorry Freedom Fighter fans but honestly deal.

“Male characters, sans Eggman, can't wear pants, which was also a thing in the Post-Reboot, albeit never explicitly stated. The inverse is also true; female characters have to have some form of lower clothing.”

Okay this is a pedantic rule. It is so weird with how precise it is. Like…huh?

“Classic characters such as Mighty, Ray, Nack/Fang, Bean, and Bark won't appear in non-Classic issues, as Sega doesn't want Classic and Modern Sonic to mix.”

One of the most bullshit mandates fueled by the nostalgia boner fans created. Like this is stupid because Archie Modern Sonic has added more character and depth to all of these mentioned characters than any of the Sega Sonic games they appeared in which only amounts to 1 or 2 at most. Why neuter your own potential stories with this stupid limitation?

“According to Ian Flynn, a specific incident involving Shadow's characterization when he's exposed to the Zombot infection was written in a specific way because of Sega mandating that he be written as an "overconfident asshole rival" character, similar to Vegeta. He later followed up with an explanation that out of every character, Shadow has the most mandates and notes attached to how he's portrayed. According to the podcast, Sega says that Team Dark is no longer a thing. The three members are not a team and they have never worked for G.U.N.; Shadow also doesn't even consider them friends.”

This is my opinion is the worst rule. First it’s contradictory to the character Sega introduced us to. Stop trying to be like Dragon Ball for once and actually be your own thing. It’s one thing if we are changing it because Shadow was unpopular because of his personality. But no one likes this Shadow. People miss the somber but reserved Hedgehog that continued to fight in spite of the world betraying him. Hothead Shadow is a cheap Knuckles. And I don’t even understand why Shadow even has so many mandates when he wasn’t the most egregious offender. Knuckles was.

Also, Team Dark aren’t a thing and Shadow doesn’t even consider them to be his friends. First off that doesn’t even fly in your own games. Who outside of Sonic does Shadow interact the most? Rouge. They have teamed up and were a packaged duo since their inception. When Shadow appeared, Rouge appeared right next to him. If Rouge was in a game, so was Shadow.

Team Dark or just Rouge has fought alongside Shadow in every game they appeared in. Who else does Shadow talk to if not Rouge?

“Sega has stated to Flynn that only male hedgehogs are allowed to go Super with the Chaos Emeralds.”

Except in Sonic Mania.

“Ian isn't allowed to directly reference a game, since the comic is supposed to be its own thing.”

Okay. Not only is this rule stupid. But it’s untrue.

This references the end of Sonic Forces.

The first page of comic.

It has referenced Sonic Adventure, SA2, Sonic Generations , and Sonic Unleashed.

This referencing Shadow the Hedgehog.

I don’t believe this rule exists and even if it did, it is dumbest rule since the whole point of this comic is to base it off the games more. The dumbest rule.

“Knuckles is not allowed to leave Angel Island unless he has a very good reason to.”

For decades, people have complained that Knuckles routinely leaves the island. For decades. Now does this mean Sega is going to 1. Use Knuckles and 2. Amplify the importance of Angel Island and the Master Emerald? No. Again, this criticism should be levied at Sega because they often conveniently forget Knuckles purpose and just hand wave it instead of giving Knuckles more to do on the island like I don’t know, have other entities invested in attacking him.

In summary, here is what I think is going on. Do I think most of these mandates are real? Yes. Given what happened to Archie, I do think Sega is doing some brand alignment. I think they got the clamps on.

But what I think is going on is a Japanese cultural thing called Power Harassment. It is normalized abuse of power. Sega of Japan is normally laxxed about their brands. They don’t mind blatant rip-offs of their mascot nor do they get stiff about fandom creations or mods. The comic division, however, is getting tough love because not only did it cost them a publishing deal, but ruined a relationship with a high end developer. So the IDW writers and staff are being subjected to intentionally hypocritical rules and strict mandates that they know don’t make sense until they’ve shown to be obedient.

A lot of the mandates aren’t strict. But some are so asinine that I don’t think they aren’t aware with how stupid they sound imposing those rules. Like Shadow is the most narratively complete Sonic character and yet, Sega puts this tight mandate as if Archie Shadow was the most egregious thing. Archie Shadow was overpowered. He wasn’t out of character like Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were. They can’t be that stupid or be that intentionally dense. So they want to see if the writing crew can follow orders. That’s it.

But that’s just my take.