#yes i know silver got kicked out of the diamond cutters. he is still a part of the team in my heart

[cosmictea2]

[true-blue-sonic]

I honestly kinda get but kinda don't get Lanolins angle.

Like Silver knows Duo is Mimic as he was potentially almost killed by him but he when he tells Lanolin, he doesn't actually provide any proof. Same goes for Whisper, she just says that Duo is Mimic and THEN trys to prove it which seems to mean putting Duo in danger or atleast risk of injury. From Lanolins POV, it probably looks like these 2 well respected team members are bullying the newbie with a weak excuse and are progressively getting more aggressive, escalating name calling to physical harm.

She didn't really know Silver personally before this Duo problem and probably thinks he's just a vindictive person who still hasn't gotten over Duo 'running off to get help'. With Whisper, I presume she just thinks she's being paranoid which when you have a nemesis like Mimic it something that could happen. Plus I don't think Whisper had actually properly told Lanolin just how dangerous Mimic can be so Mimic might not register that high of a threat since he isn't exactly destroying citys like Eggman or the Zeti.

However, I don't understand why she's taking the direction she is. She's incredibly disrespectful of Silver which I can only presume is because she now thinks he's a bully (otherwise I can't think of a reason) and she's incredibly disrespectful of Whisper, I could see her annoyance for Silver maybe bleeding over to Whisper now she's on his side but it feels very meh.

I feel like if Lanolin just had a page to explain her train of thought then alot of this could be sorted and I hope she actually starts giving Duo the side eye since now 2 people are saying he's Mimic.

I think you nicely describe the issues I see with this current plot, yes.

I mentioned it in my ask to Beevean as well, but this entire plot is fully dependent on not letting characters do or say entirely reasonable things we can expect of them, as to not fall apart. In issue 63 alone, Silver should have provided proof, namely that he got kicked, and Whisper should have backed him up, because she literally says later that she saw it herself as well. Silver also should have said that Duo's face changed to something super ominous, because in that same scene with Whisper later he says he saw so! And Lanolin, Whisper and Tangle should have noticed that Duo says to them he couldn't do anything to help Silver, but that Silver says Duo just ran away without saying anything while Duo himself protests he was 'getting help'. This isn't a small thing, this is Silver literally nearly dying because of Duo's (in)actions, and there could not be a greater discrepancy between what Duo first tells the girls ("I couldn't do anything") and then later says to defend himself against Silver ("I was getting help"). There is so many should have's, but all of these will make the dramatic irony plot fall apart, so the characters cannot say them! And thus we get the highly unfair scene of Lanolin immediately picking Duo's side and tearing into the literal saviour of the world as if she's his boss (no, Silver is not part of the Diamond Cutters, he's just training with them) and knows far more about heroing and psychic powers than he does (ma'am, in your first mission in the field ever Whisper, you, and Sonic got captured and Tangle almost got shot right through her head). Silver meanwhile is mischaracterised as immediately folding under that scolding, Whisper suddenly becomes a coward who does not back Silver up until all is said and done, and Tangle does not point out Lanolin is being overly bossy again. So basically in that scene, everyone is written terribly, but it is a necessity to keep the plot going. In that way, I can accept it is not fully Lanolin's fault that she doesn't know what is going on, because she's stuck in a badly-written plot with all the above should have's ensuring that she'll nicely not find out the truth until it is too late... but her terrible personality and constant immediate defending of Duo do not help in her figuring anything out, either.

And besides, Lanolin does, or at least should, know Silver's feats. She was there for the Metal Virus Arc where Super Sonic and Super Silver saved the entire world! Duo literally confirms people not allied with the Restoration at that time know of Angel Island! Silver was part of the Resistance for six months! He's got tons of credibility and a presence during prior events where he absolutely necessary to stop things from going to shit to back him up, where he was a team player and overall a very helpful person. We are never shown where her sudden disdain for him comes from, meaning we can only fill it with theorising that link right back to the should have's (e.g. "She thinks Silver is irresponsible because he nearly dropped those rocks on her!" -> Silver should have pointed out he dropped them because Duo kicked him). As for Whisper, from what I can tell Lanolin does indeed not know that Mimic specifically is the one who betrayed Whisper's old team... but instead of doing something more sensible like asking "Why do you think that?" or "Why would he do that?" when Whisper accuses Duo of being Mimic, she instead becomes defensive immediately. No surprise, no shock, no concern, just immediate defensive anger with her usual pissed off I Can't Stand You Actually facial expression. Why does she trust Whisper so little that she can't even hear her out normally? Why does she immediately assume Whisper is lying when she is presented with such an outlandish claim (too outlandish to come up with out of nowhere, imo) that still indicates they could all be in terrible danger? I can accept the idea that she thinks Silver is still mad about nearly being eaten by a Giant Chopper, but why did she react in the way she did to Whisper, who by that point had done nothing to indicate she should not be listened to?

And like, adding to that... why would Lanolin assume that Silver and Whisper suddenly are bullying Duo anyway, when neither has shown him any badwill beforehand? Whisper was totally down with him joining the team since they needed volunteers, no issues there. Silver was friendly to him until the Chopper incident, with not a hint of bad blood or envy or whatever negative emotion you might ascribe to it. And you are right: we are never shown why Lanolin is so protective of Duo, just that she values the newbie far more than a teammate she's been on a mission with before and the actual saviour of the past and future. Lanolin is written like an altogether terrible leader (cannot de-escalate situations and only makes them worse, clearly favouring one member over the others for no reason, cannot hear all parties out first before immediately jumping onto the defense) and to me as just a rude, unpleasant character on top, and we simply don't know 1. why, and 2. if this is intentional in a 'meta' sense. Nobody calls her out on her behaviours, but we do see that characters like Tangle are quite disheartened by her words and actions, and she herself admits she's bossy. So she's a character aware of her flaws who does nothing to become better: how nice. But overall, there's a lot of questions around why Lanolin acts the way she does, and why she can easily be taken as altogether hating her teammates (if her facial expressions around them are anything to go by) or at least not trusting them. And the comic is doing very little to answer such questions or indicate if we should root for Lanolin because she's 'doing her best' or dislike her for her nasty personality instead, unfortunate as that is.

So yeah... I don't know what is going to happen. All I know is that I do not care for it much: Silver's got quite the happy ending with someone who actually respects him and listens to him, and that is all I can ask for, haha. At most, I would love it if Mimic gave Lanolin the callout of a lifetime for trusting his random ass over the two far more experienced people around her, and allowing him an easy escape with her constant interrupting, distrusting, and scolding of her teammates so that he didn't have to keep scrambling for excuses. And if Lanolin admits she's been a terrible leader who only escalated things further with her actions and who clearly does not respect her team members for no reason, that would be nice too. We'll see what happens: I am going to predict there'll be absolutely zero consequences for Lanolin and her behaviours and actions, then it can only become better, haha.