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scruffyplayssonic · 1 year

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Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 40: The one episode that's unique to the show's premise and characters (part 3: Iron Dominion)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! Today my search for stories that are the most unique to the comic’s premise and characters takes me into Ian Flynn’s run. It's a beefy old post for a beefy old arc, which is why it's taken me so long to get this thing out. Hoo boy.

Ian wrote a lot of really great stories in ArchieSonic over the years, such as Enerjak Reborn, the Mecha Sally and Secret Freedom Fighters saga, and of course, the epic Sonic #175, where Eggman actually won. And that’s just in the main Sonic book! Sonic Universe also has lots of great arcs, including The Shadow Saga, The Tails Adventure, Scrambled, and the “Dark Trilogy” involving Shadow and Knuckles vs Eclipse. But I think the most unique ArchieSonic story Ian ever told was the Iron Dominion arc, stretching from Sonic #201 - 212, and Sonic Universe #9 - 16 (as the impact of Espio’s absence was felt during the Knuckles: The Return arc). There's too many covers to include from the full arc, but here are a few of my favourites:

Following Sonic getting his arse kicked in #175, issue #200 saw Sonic get his revenge by taking down Dr. Eggman so easily that Eggman completely lost his mind and was reduced to a babbling, catatonic state.

But Snively had been paying attention to the doctor’s decaying mental state and plotting behind the scenes for the transition of power…

That’s right - Ian brought back two characters who had only made a single appearance in the comics before, in Sonic #60: the Iron King and Queen.Taking control of Eggman’s diminishing forces - which was mostly just the recently rechristened Dark Egg Legion - the Iron Queen added to it with her own armies of four ninja clans. On top of that she also had her technomagic abilities to control robotics and superpowered ox partner, making her a formidable opponent indeed.

This new threat brought back another long-absent character, Monkey Khan, who reluctantly joined forces with the Freedom Fighters in the fight against the Iron Dominion. The fight went back and forth for awhile before Snively realised that Regina’s power over digital and robotic forms would allow her to take control of Nicole’s digital consciousness.

Converted into the Iron Queen’s servant, Nicole turned the nanite city of New Mobotropolis itself against its citizens and captured a large portion of the population before Sally was able to restore her free will. Realising that even if they beat the Iron Queen now that she would come back with the rest of her ninja armies, Sally took a trip to the Dragon Kingdom with Monkey Khan, Sonic and Tails to try and convince the clans to break their ties with the Iron Queen. Nicole stayed undercover pretending to be the Iron Queen’s servant while secretly sabotaging her plans and freeing prisoners where she could until Sonic and co. returned for the big showdown. The Iron King and Queen were defeated, but in a panic Snively returned to Eggman (who had regained his senses by that time) and they were able to escape back to their base, preparing for Eggman’s next attack that would be the most devastating of all.

This was such an interesting arc! It shook up the status quo for a full year before Eggman returned to power and gave us some really interesting character moments and arcs. For instance:

Sonic and Eggman

Eggman completely losing his mind after Sonic defeated him one time too many was a big surprise, and gave Sonic a lot of self-doubt and regret about how he’d handled the battle. When Eggman later escaped Snively’s custody and Sonic came to face to face with his loony butt again, Sonic actually found himself holding back because he felt bad for beating him so easily in his fragile state. I personally love this moment after they locked Eggman up and Sonic humoured his insanity rather than being mean to him.

It’s a really interesting side of Sonic we don’t always get to see a lot of (although it's been shown a bit more regularly in IDW Sonic), and it was a really nice moment for him especially in contrast to how previous writers had portrayed Sonic as a jerk.

As for Eggman, he was a lot of fun in this arc. He went from absolutely Batbrain crazy (pardon the pun) to reasoning himself back from insanity.

And he turned out to be absolutely right, too. Almost immediately after that conversation when the tables turned and Snively found himself on the losing team, he panicked and went straight back to Eggman.

Also, this moment NEVER gets old. :D

Sally and Monkey Khan.

This arc was an important one for both of them to develop not just as individuals, but also as a couple. Ken Khan had been absent from the comic for a long time - the last time he showed up had been Sonic #92 (except for a brief, single page cameo in #125), and he’d left a pretty bad impression then by attacking a group of innocent people just because he associated them with Eggman.

Also, that. :P

Ian had to do a lot of work to make him a likable character, but I think he pulled it off. Ken had a lot of rage and pain due to the loss of his own team of Freedom Fighters, whom he later admitted he had actually murdered himself while under the Iron Queen’s control.

Over the course of the arc Ken slowly came to terms with the losses he’d endured and the feelings of guilt and self-doubt he was still suffering from, as well as gradually accepting the responsibility of being “King of the Free People.”

As for Sally, she had already been well on the road to recovery from the dark days leading up to and following the slap (which honestly you could probably trace all the way back to the post-Sonic Adventure arc, after Sally was separated from the Freedom Fighters and got stuck with royal duties). She’d gotten her head back in the game and returned to active duty, and even cut her hair to symbolise returning to her Freedom Fighter roots. With Ken showing up, Sally was given an opportunity to explore whether she was interested in a relationship with someone who wasn’t Sonic.

They worked well together but in the end Sally decided that she had to see if she and Sonic could still work as a couple before she was ready to think about other options. And Ken showed how much he’d grown over the course of the arc by gracefully accepting the rejection rather than losing his temper.

Ken and Sally remained good friends afterwards, with Sally even going to him to ask for advice when she and Sonic were preparing to go on their first date. It was a nice relationship I would have liked to have seen more of, but unfortunately the next time that we saw Monkey Khan, Sally had now been roboticised.

Snively and Regina.

Now this one was really fascinating to me. Snively is probably the most selfish, self-serving, back-stabbing character to ever grace the pages of Sonic the Hedgehog, so watching him actually start to care about someone was a big change. In Sonic #194, prior to Eggman’s defeat, Snively started chatting online with Regina as part of a routine check, but was surprised to find she was someone who he could relate to and bond with.

They essentially started a long-distance relationship as a couple after that, although it was done in secrecy, of course. When Snively noticed that Eggman’s mental state was rapidly deteriorating, he plotted with Regina to take control of the Eggman Empire without even having to do anything to get Eggman out of the way themselves. While it was pretty obvious that Snively was completely smitten with Regina, there was a lot of debate among the fandom about whether or not Regina felt the same way or if she was simply using him as part of her grab for power. This eventually was answered several years later during the Scrambled arc in Sonic Universe:

We also got an interesting insight into Regina's backstory, finding out she was exiled from the human territories as a child for practicing illegal technomagiks.

Nicole and Bunnie.

The Iron Dominion arc was a rough one for both of these characters. One of Bunnie’s greatest fears is losing control of her robotic limbs and being forced to fight her friends. It happened once before when A.D.A.M used nanites to do just that, and it happened again during Iron Dominion when the Iron Queen used her technomagik to control her.

Not only did the Iron Queen force Bunnie to fight her friends, but she pushed her to her limits as well, draining her of energy to the point where she had to be briefly hospitalised afterwards.

As for Nicole, she didn’t just temporarily have her body controlled by the Iron Queen but her mind too. When the Iron Queen forced her to be her lieutenant, she was extremely effective at physically turning the entire city against its populace.

After having her free will restored, Nicole wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with what had happened to her, especially since she was so new at experiencing emotions as it was.

Those two issues had a massive impact on Nicole, as it started off a chain of events that resulted in her being temporarily exiled from New Mobotropolis and left alone in Freedom HQ, trying to deal with the grief of losing Sally to roboticisation, and blaming herself for the Freedom Fighters’ disbandment.

(continued in my next post - Tumblr has a limit on the number of images in a post, whoopsie. xD)

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sally-mun · 11 months

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So, while I doubt it would happen anything close to how it does in the comics due to reasons, I'd still think it would be a fun thought experiment in the line of my earlier Enerjak Reborn ask; if something like the Endangered Species storyline happened that exiled every other Echidna on the planet to another plane of existence, how do you think your version of Knuckles & Finitevus would end up reacting in the fallout, assuming they care at all?

ANSWER UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE MY PARTNER IS NOT WELCOME TO READ IT. BE GONE WITH YOU, SIR!

Well first and foremost, I can definitely assure you that they'd care. Knuckles and Finitevus are very protective of Albion and their species as a whole, plus even they are still susceptible to that specist streak that the majority of echidnas tend to have. So yeah, right out of the gate, this would definitely be a thing for them to address.

The interesting thing is that within the last year or so, Knux and Fini have had an encounter with the Zone Cops, and do still have a mild established connection with Zonic; specifically, he gave them a beacon to use if they're ever in trouble do a degree that they might need his assistance. I think if the Endangered Species situation ever happened, Knux and Fini would immediately investigate, and at whatever point they discovered that their people were sent to another zone, they'd undoubtedly activate the beacon. I'm not sure how directly Zonic could help them -- the Zone Cops as a whole are INCREDIBLY bureaucratic and typically very apathetic toward the lives of the actual residents of other zones -- but he'd damn well try. If nothing else, he'd try to help them with information, or other resources at his disposal.

Then from there, I think our boys could end up going down a very interesting rabbit hole involving the use of other types of chaos~ at a minimum this would probably incite them to do further research into black chaos, which they both already have familiarity with (Finitevus moreso). They've managed to open warp rings into other zones before, but not without an insignificant amount of effort and research, as well as personal risk because they don't have it down well enough for it to be stable. This could push them to perfect it, and could potentially branch into them trying to use other types of chaos as well -- perhaps even the elusive grey chaos, which I've mused about many times before~

Anyway I've hidden all this under a cut because I know my RP partner reads my blog and I've enjoyed this thought exercise enough that I'm considering actually working with it in-game, and I'd rather they not see more of this than necessary lol.

#normally I just plain wouldn't answer an ask that could have in-game implications #but to be honest I didn't realize it would until I'd already spent a significant amount of time replying #and at that point you just don't want to delete!

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themattress · 2 years

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Eras of a Franchise:

1993 - 1997: The Classic Era - Following the success of the “pilot” miniseries, a full comic series based on Sonic the Hedgehog that combined elements from the games and the two cartoon shows currently on the air is produced. It starts off incredibly silly and episodic, but gradually becomes more serious with an overarching storyline and character development. This era concludes with the “Endgame” story arc, where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters defeat Dr. Robotnik once and for all in what was initially conceived as the series finale. Writers: Michael Gallagher, Angelo Decesare, Ken Penders, Mike Kanterovich, Kent Taylor

1997 - 2000: The Adventuring Era - Continuing on past “Endgame”, the comic almost completely dropped its comedy aspects and became a full-on adventure series, first going through the Ixis Naugus arc (aka the Mobius World Tour arc), then the Return of Robotnik arc, and then appropriately enough the Sonic Adventure adaptation arc. During this era, the Knuckles the Echidna series ran in its entirety, lasting 32 issues before its cancellation. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Kent Taylor

2000 - 2003: The Declining Era - When Sonic and friends returned to Knothole village following the Sonic Adventure adaptation arc, the series began a sharp decline in quality and fan reception. Sonic entered a love triangle with Princess Sally and Mina Mongoose that dragged on for issues on end, Knuckles turned green and obtained ultimate power that he proceeded to do jack shit with until his temporary death reversed the effect, and at one point there was such a lack of direction for the comic that its covers began being patterned after tabloids as a gimmick to grab reader interest. The era managed to finish strong with the “Sonic Adventure 2.5″ two-parter, but the optimism this caused proved to be premature. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Romy Chacon

2003 - 2006: The Miserable Era - After being lost in space for a few issues, Sonic returned to Earth and everything promptly went to Hell. Sally broke up with him via the most infamous slap prior to Will Smith’s at the Oscars, the much reviled Tommy Turtle became a mainstay character, the origin of the Freedom Fighters was retconned, characters swung wildly in and out of character, the furry romantic drama made famous by the preceding era reached an apex of insufferability, the notorious “Mobius: 25 Years Later” storyline transpired, and of course we got THIS. At this point, many fans wondered why this series was still running. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Romy Chacon

2006 - 2009: The Renewal Era - Following a clean sweep of the comic’s writers, things got more or less back on track, with many long-hanging story threads finally being wrapped up, characters mostly acting like themselves again, and the sense of genuine forward momentum finally returning. Highlights include A.D.A.M’s rebellion which resulted in Tommy Turtle’s death, the Enerjak Reborn arc which resulted in Locke’s death, and Dr. Robotnik reasserting himself as the primary threat by finally destroying Knothole and delivering a brutal beatdown to Sonic. Lowlights include the misguided continuation of “Mobius: 25 Years Later”, the utterly asinine “House of Cards” two-parter, and almost everything involving Scourge the Hedgehog. Writers: Ian Flynn

2009 - 2013: The Burdened Era - Cracks began to show in Ian Flynn’s run following the 200th issue, with the unpopular Iron Dominion story arc dragging on for over a year. The following King Naugus and Mecha Sally story arcs were also controversial, and it seemed like the rampant OOC syndrome from the Miserable Era had returned with a vengeance. Adding to the problems the comic was having was one of its own former writers, Ken Penders, whose legal battles with Archie over the ownership of his characters resulted in a full-on cosmic reboot for the series’ continuity at the conclusion of the “Worlds Collide” crossover event with the Mega Man comic, which remains a sore spot for fans of the series to this day. Writers: Ian Flynn

2013 - 2017: The Reboot Era - The majority of the reboot ended up dedicated to a single storyline: the Shattered World Crisis which very loosely adapted the plot of Sonic Unleashed. This particular arc dragged on and on for years, not helped by another crossover with Mega Man, “Worlds Unite”, interrupting it in the middle. Following the Shattered World Crisis’ conclusion, the Archie comic series was officially cancelled, having lasted for a full 24 years. Writers: Ian Flynn

#Eras of a Franchise #Sonic the Hedgehog #Analysis

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thankskenpenders · 3 years

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LOCKE

DEAD

No commentary just yet. Let's just savor the most insufferable character in the entire series being dead. I've been waiting six years for this moment

#StH 184 #tkp post #Enerjak Reborn #hall of fame

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toaarcan · 3 years

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Now that I think about, while we've heard your opinions on the big writers on Archie, I don't think we ever really heard your opinions on some of the pre-Genesis storyline stuff in great detail. In particular, what's your opinion/commentary on the Knuckles series as a whole, Return to Angel Island, and the Knuckles-as-Enerjak storylines?

I have not read the Knuckles comic, because that was “Penders’ Personal Fanfic Land” and reading it will deal more psychic damage than my fragile mind can withstand.

Penders without other writers to provide not-shit writing between it all is not something that needs to be experienced, or even should be experienced. It’s why I haven’t gone back to read the Hell Run (Sonic after Penders gained full control of it), and I’m not going to read Knuckles. It’s a shame because I do like Knuckles, and a good chunk of his supporting cast, but I like them as they’re written by people that aren’t Penders, and I don’t think there are all that many characters who don’t stop acting like themselves when he gets his claws on them.

Return to Angel Island, however, is one of the best stories in the whole book. Bollers’ status quo shakeup was honestly a great idea when it comes to Angel Island. It introduced Finitevus, one of the Sonic franchise’s best antagonists, and Gray’s art makes him look so damn sinister that you have to wonder why anyone trusted him, but somehow I find myself not caring.

Also I love the depiction of Super Knuckles (Hyper Knuckles?), he looks so goddamn powerful and that’s the vibe I want out of Super forms. By contrast I never really got much of any sort of feeling from the Super forms in other runs. They either just sort of happened or felt kinda... mandatory.

Enerjak Reborn is probably Ian’s peak as a writer. It’s been a while since I read it, as I don’t generally reread Archie unless I need to, but I really enjoyed it.

I have a lot of negative stuff to say about Ian’s handling of Sonic, and in that regard I don’t think he’ll ever be as good as Akinori Nishiyama or Shiro Maekawa, but his Knuckles... is basically the best Knuckles, no questions asked. With the exception of Endangered Species, which didn’t need to exist, was yet more pointless filler in the middle of Mecha Sally because Ian had to stretch it out to 250 somehow, and was then cut to ribbons by legal disputes, I don’t think he wrote a bad Knuckles story until Archie was cancelled and IDW was forced to use SEGA’s modern dumbass Knuckles.

And Enerjak Reborn was the perfect ending to that era of the character. Finitevus is a fantastic villain, he always will be, even if his choice of minions is suspect. Knuckles himself becoming Enerjak is a brilliant twist on the idea, and the battles he has with Sonic, Shadow, etc are all pretty good, and that’s saying something considering most of Ian’s fight scenes read like each character only has three attacks.

There’s a lot I could say, but I’ll sum it up with this: This story is so good that even the presence of Scourge can’t drag it down. If anything, it helps me by providing some of that handy ammunition I need for saying that 172 is full of shit, and Scourge is a total shitheel.

#Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Knuckles the Echidna #Doctor Finitevus #Enerjak Reborn #Return to Angel Island #Ken Penders #Ian Flynn #Karl Bollers #Akinori Nishiyama #Shiro Maekawa #Anonymous

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wingsmould · 2 years

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enerjak reborn arc 🥰🥰🥰 love and light

#beep boop #sth #it may be my favorite pre reboot arc. its the definitely the most satisfying #everyone calling out lockes terrible awful actions 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰#and him paying for it 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰#to my non sonic followers: locke is knuckles' shitty dad. he experimented on his unborn son. he faked his death right in front of him.#the list can go on and on #and under kenders his actions were always ''justified'' because ''father knows best''#it was so bad #and then in enerjak reborn everyone basically goes ''this is your fault. youre the guy who microwaved the baby''#when locke immediately suggests that they kill knuckles and everyone rightfully says what the fuck is wrong with you #''release my boy! give him his own life to lead!'' 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰#anyway. sonic comics huh

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archiesoniconline · 7 years

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I can say that there are currently 3 chapters in Knuckles's story post-Penders. Chapter 1 was Return to Angel Island (StH 138-141). Chapter 2 was Enerjak Reborn (StH 181-184). And Chapter 3 was Knuckles Returns (SU 9-12). After reading Knuckles Returns, I'll have an even bigger reason to hype for him, Julie-Su, and Thrash in Chapter 4- Endangered Species (StH/O 243-246). ECHIDNA HYPE!

Yup! Endangered Species will definitely be a lot more focused on Knuckles and the echidnas, who haven’t seen the spotlight in quite some time! That’s one of the reasons we decided to make Endangered Species a separate mini-series. It’s a nice little callback to the Knuckles mini-series of old, I think.

#knuckles the echidna #return to angel island #enerjak reborn #knuckles returns #endangered species #aso #ask

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jenasu · 3 years

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I’ve had these stupid memes stuck in my brain ever since @thankskenpenders covered Enerjak Reborn, so I’m finally releasing them into the wild where they’re everyone else’s problem now.

Dr. Finitevus really didn’t take the kind of idiots Knuckles is surrounded by into account, like, at all, huh.

#sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #julie su the echidna #dr. finitevus #archimedes #archimedes the fire ant #Julie Su #Julie-Su #locke the echidna #JenaArts #thankskenpenders

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erictmason · 3 years

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“I am the rocks of the eternal shore. Crash against me...and be broken.”

((A commission for @magnumthecreator001, who, inspired by @thankskenpenders‘ recent recap of the “Enerjak Reborn” story-arc from the Archie “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic, wanted to see a clash between Enerjak and a fully-armed Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter.

Looking to get a commission yourself? I’ve still got slots open! https://gojira007.tumblr.com/post/168682813032/yup-finally-diving-into-this-wide-wacky-world ))

#sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #knuckles #enerjak #fan art #ericthemason #my art

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fyeahsonicthehedgehog · 3 years

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What are your favorite Archie Sonic arcs?

Endgame (47 - 50/SSS 6)

World Tour/Hunt for Ixis Naugus (56 - 66 + KTE 11 - 12)

Sonic Adventure 2.5/Tossed in Space (124 - 129)

Return to Angel Island (138 - 141)

Enerjak Reborn (180 - 184)

The Dark Legion (KTE 1 - 3)

Th Chaotix Caper (KTE 13 - 15)

The Silver Saga (SU 25 - 28)

#archie sonic #anon

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gainaxvel3o · 3 years

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Both Locke and King Max were awful, awful dads, but Max always felt worse. Locke sucks real hard, he ruined his son’s life in ginormous inexcusable ways, but there was always a sense that on some level he was meant to be wrong (even in Pender storylines like Mobius 25YL Knuckles would admit his father made mistakes in raising him) and I felt pity when he sacrificed himself during the Enerjak Reborn storyline because he realized his mistakes too late to do anything else. One could argue there was a level tragedy in his character in spite of his ways.

Max though? From the minute he came back Max kept undermining Sally’s authority and self esteem, from keeping her out of the loop on important subjects, to forcing her to stay behind, to trying to get her married to Antonie multiple times, and when Sally disobeys him like when she refused to kill the Robians? Even after it was revealed Max was brainwashed when he made the order? Max justified it by saying it was God’s will or some such bullshit. Unlike Locke, who at least showed some regret over his actions, I don’t think Max ever apologized to his children for being such an asshole. He sucks hard.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Comics #Archie Sonic #Locke #King Max #Knuckes #Antonie #Robians #Sally Acorn #thought process #Asshole Dads #King Max is an asshole

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sally-mun · 3 years

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Unsurprisingly on my mind due to TKP's blog going through it, I've been meaning to ask (if just to clarify) about if any details from the "Enerjak Reborn" saga ever slip into your universe, even if clearly can't happen due to the characters' relationships. A part of me assumes that the idea you mentioned of Locke becoming the threat he prophesized sounded like the most likely direct replacement for that, but I wonder if any other ideas end up still mimicking it?

First of all, I fucking love your username and as far as I’m concerned you DID decide on a good one.

Anyway, this is an interesting bit of the storyline because it’s in that nebulous place where my partner and I agree that it happened, but we’ve never actually hammered out exactly what happened. For the most part, the bullet points of Finitevus tricking Knuckles into getting hexed and Locke sacrificing himself to release him are agreed to have been in the RP’s backstory, but given the version of Locke that I wrote for the Brotherhood, I’m sure the tone of the situation was very different. I can only imagine what the situation looked like through Locke’s eyes, honestly. In some ways you could argue that Knuckles becoming Enerjak IS the realization of everything Locke worked for, so that begs the question of whether or not he would see that as his premonition coming true. It’s hard to say given that there’s so many other events that have happened leading up to this point that would’ve also gone differently based on the new circumstances, and some that probably didn’t happen all together.

However, here’s my immediate hunch:

1) The events of S3&K definitely happened in the RP’s backstory, although again I’m sure several events played out in different ways. The great point to this is that, as WE all know, this was the fulfillment of the mural that Locke saw on the wall in Hidden Palace, which unknowingly inspired his recurring dream. Locke, however, would’ve taken the arrival of Eggman and the Death Egg with a lot more confusion. Obviously this is the level of threat his premonition insisted upon, but Knuckles wasn’t the one to ultimately defeat it! Some ground-dwelling heathen actually took care of it!!! So no matter how much the situation would seem to fulfill the slot of the Great Evil, it obviously can’t be because Knuckles did not ascend to become the Savior in order to stop it.

2) It’s probably safe to say this cycle happened a few others times, because let’s face it, Angel Island has seen some shit. I don’t think the others probably ever compared to S3&K arc, though, both in terms of the impact it made on the situation (and Locke’s psyche) and the fact that the enemy just plain looks like the figure in Locke’s dreams.

3) This would probably mean that an already paranoid Locke is getting jumpier and jumpier every time a new threat arises, because by now there’ve been so many BIG bad events that he’s probably constantly worrying, “Is this the Great Evil?? IS THIS THE GREAT EVIL??” and his already frayed nerves are probably completely shot.

4) So imagine, then, when Knuckles -- Locke’s only pride and joy, for whom he sacrificed absolutely everything in his life and has been banking on saving everyone’s lives -- seems to have become the Great Evil himself. It’s not enough that he’s powerful on an otherworldly scale and seems to have gone mad with said power; the bigger shock is that Knuckles does, indeed, seem to be fulfilling the criteria of his premonitions. He’s not just terrorizing the rest of the world (which, let’s be honest, Locke probably doesn’t even care about), he’s also terrorizing echidnas. He left Echidnaopolis in ruins by forcibly removing the entire population, and he’s destroying a lot of lives by changing their bodies against their will. The entire echidna species is terrified of what he has become, and what else he might do. Maybe the fact that the Great Evil was enormous in Locke’s dream wasn’t about literal physical scale, but rather, a representation of the enormity of the threat that’s posed.

5) In a perfect world, I’d really like to imagine that this finally, FINALLY, brings Locke a desperately needed moment of clarity. Locke got to the state he ends up in because he’s so afraid of some ambiguous and unidentifiable threat, so maybe the fact that he now CAN identify the threat could be enough to raise that fog. Maybe seeing Knuckles as the evil they need to be protected from will finally be enough to jolt Locke back to reality, and allow him to see just how bad his decisions have been and how Knuckles’ state is, honestly, a very logical conclusion to the chain of events that came before it. Knuckles becoming the Great Evil was always a possibility all along, but Locke was so convinced of the contrary that he just literally couldn’t see it. Now he can see it. Now he can grasp how, no matter how well-intentioned he was, he absolutely, 100%, undeniably caused his son to become the one thing he’s feared all along.

6) If Locke is able to have that moment, and think completely clearly again for even a brief time, then I have no doubt whatsoever that Locke would make that sacrifice to save him. No attempts to find an alternative, no hemming and hawing, no attempts to get everyone to kill Knuckles like in the comic, NONE of that shit. If Locke, the REAL Locke that’s been lost inside the madness all this time is able to wake up for just a few moments, emerges again and learns that the only way to save his boy from the fate he himself unwittingly doomed him to is for someone to give up their own life, Locke would make that sacrifice in a heartbeat. He said back on the day he activated the chaos bath that he wished he could take Knuckles’ burdens away and put himself in his place. This would be one way to do exactly that, to give Knuckles a shot at a real, normal life again, and to atone for the enormous mistakes he made that caused this tragedy.

I think if the situation arose under those sorts of circumstances, it would just make Locke’s sacrifice all the more meaningful. Allowing him to not only realize that he’s the one that ultimately caused all this, but to fully admit to it AND take responsibility without being harangued into doing so completely changes the tone of what he does. It’s not a situation where Locke sees sacrificing himself as something that has to be done, but something that should be done, to atone for his wrongdoings and save the one person he loves more than anyone or anything else in this world.

I don’t see the Locke of the comics as someone who would die for his child without the slightest hesitation, even after more skillful writers get a hold of him; I don’t see the fact that he does so unrealistic, but I honestly think the only reason he does it is because he can’t think of a way out of it. I mean, for fuck’s sake, shortly before doing so he was campaigning TO HAVE KNUCKLES KILLED. I think canon!Locke loves Knuckles in his own weird way, but I think his love for Knuckles comes second to his love for himself, and it always has. Canon!Locke is just simply too arrogant to think of someone else first, even his own child.

Locke the way I write him, however, was always ready to die so that Knuckles could live. It used to be because he felt Knuckles was too important to their people and needed to live to save them, but when all that baggage is lifted, Locke would still die for him simply because he loves him. He would die for him to make his life better, to free him from the prisons he’s been confined to both physically and mentally, to allow him to fully live. He’d die to save his son because he wants him to finally have the life he deserves -- that he always deserved. If the price of Knuckles being happy, healthy, and free is Locke giving up his life, there’d be no force on Mobius that could’ve kept him away from the Master Emerald to do it.

I don’t know if this is quite the sort of answer you were looking for, but again, this was the first impulse that came into my brain. It feels right to me, and probably would be worth exploring in a story sometime. Maybe someone could commission me for it or something, who knows. In the meantime, I hope this paints the picture as well as I’m seeing in my head.

#Sallymun RPs #Locke #cantdecideonagoodusername

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toaarcan · 5 years

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Scourge the Hedgehog: The Bad Fanfic Apotheosis

Y’all are gonna hate me for this one.

This is something of a followup to my previous post, Fiona Fox: Depth vs. Prominence, and inspired directly by the discussion I had with a friend in the comments section of the DA upload of it.

Part 1: Fanfic vs. Canon- Genesis of the Recolour Elements of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic have long been compared to a bad fanfiction, particularly the parts of the story written by Ken Penders, though other writers like Bollers, Chacon, and Flynn have drawn that label too. I'm one of the people that's done it, and that's largely because I hold fanfic and official material to very different standards. There are certain things you can do in fanfic that you can't do in official material, especially with franchises like Sonic, and especially with more niche parts of said franchise, like a comic series. Of course, there are also certain things you can do in both, but you probably shouldn't. And Scourge is one of them. What exactly the process behind Scourge's creation was is something that's been debated. For a lot of people, he's considered to be a parody of the then-rampant "Sonic Recolour" fad, wherein fans would take screenshots of Sonic X, and other official artwork, and then edit it in Microsoft Paint, or another similar program, to create their own characters and stories. Now, this was long decried by other fans, myself included, as incredibly lacking in creativity and originality. It also had an "Ew, cringe" reaction, due to the often-shoddy editing, text-to-speech voices, and usually some top-tier mid-2000s Nu Metal for the music. These days, it's much easier to look back and say "These were mostly made by kids who were just having fun, and it's completely harmless", and it becomes apparent that a lot of the people that were making fun of them and criticising them were grown men, at which point you kinda realise that this "internet fad" was basically just bullying a bunch of children for not being up to the creative standards of some adults. Everybody was looking for the next Chris-Chan, but Chris-Chan is a near-unique entity, as only one other person alive has ever managed to combine that sheer void of talent with a monumentally repulsive personality, and that person is Ken Penders. But Sonichu is the least interesting thing about Chris, and Chris became the laughingstock that he is because of his inability to avoid posting his entire life on the Internet, which was something of a rarity in those halcyon days before the rise of modern social media. Sonichu was a gateway to the actually interesting content also on his channels, whereas these recolour-creators didn't have anything like that, just endless Windows Movie Maker slideshows. And, like, Chris was in his 20s when he became the Internet's punching bag for the first time, and while he's a horrible person, so were the people that dedicated their time and effort to trolling him- His story is fascinating, but it has no heroes. And into this collective cocktail of grown men shitting on preteens, so Ian Flynn introduced Scourge the Hedgehog. Is Scourge a parody of Sonic recolours? I sincerely hope not. The reason for that is twofold, and I'll discuss how his portrayal generally doesn't seem to be mocking those tropes further down the page, but the second issue with the idea that he is a parody is best explained by Sir Terry.

Parody can never punch down, and as a then-24 year old man writing official canon for a franchise, mocking a bunch of 10 year olds on the Internet for making bad stories would definitely be punching down. And, as I said, nothing about the way Scourge is written is in any way poking fun at the tropes of these fancharacters and stories. It's pretty much all played completely straight. So not only do I hope Ian wasn't trying to mock these fancharacters, but there's also little reason to believe that he actually was. He's not a parody, he is a send-up. And on the one hand, it's kinda nice to throw a bone to those kids. But on the other hand... is Scourge really the character you want to represent your part of the fandom in official material? A cruel, violent, abusive, vicious monster that spends his time palling around with a girlfriend that the writer reforged to be the most unlikable character in the entire comic? Yeah, can't say that's what I'd want if I were one of those people, but he seems to be popular enough, so maybe I'm in the minority there. But now we get to the meat of the problem. You see, the way Scourge is written is one of those things that you can do in fanfic, but you shouldn't do in canon. Part 2: What is a Mary-Sue? The term "Mary-Sue" gets thrown around a lot these days. It's gradually lost all meaning, and has slowly become a term for "Female character that I don't like," mainly used by whiny, easily-offended Broflake Youtubers, who get all pissy that Star Wars films aren't specifically catering to them, to the point that you only have to make a girl be good at something in a movie and these pissbabies lose their shit. I liked Episode VII and VIII more than I, II, or VI, get fucked. But what, then, is a Mary-Sue? And why is it relevant to Scourge? The answer to that first question is a lot more complicated than it might seem. Not just because there are now several different varieties of the trope, but also because the trope itself evolved as it began to be applied to non-fanworks, and additionally because the name itself is somewhat non-indicative. A male Mary-Sue can exist, though these are normally referred to as "Marty-Stue" or "Gary-Stue", or more cynically "The Protagonist". Check out the average Batman comic these days and you'll see what I mean. Originally, the term applied only to a self-insert character in a fanfic, that was an overly-idealised version of the author, dramatically overpowered, hugely popular, normally dating whichever member of the cast the author wanted to bone, or sometimes multiple partners at the same time, along with a few other traits. It's actually pre-Internet term, originating in a Star Trek fanzine when "Mary-Sue" was created as a parody of other fans' similar characters. Over time, the trope evolved to the point that, while the "author avatar" feature is still a pretty big indicator, it's not really necessary. So while there are probably plenty of people out there who want to be Batman, not every character that is a Mary-Sue is someone for the author to project themselves onto, and not every author avatar is a Mary-Sue. Generally, the important features of a Mary-Sue are now: 1) Receives a great deal of favouritism from the author 2) More powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity 3) Faces zero consequences for their actions. 4) Liked by characters that have no reason to do so 5) In a relationship with a character that has no reason to date them, previous relationships be damned. 6) Most importantly, the story will bend over backwards to give them easy wins, even in situations where they logically should struggle. You're probably starting to get where I'm going with this, and if you're not... Part 3: Creator's Pet Scourge is a Creator's Pet. He gets shown a fair bit of favouritism from Ian Flynn, primarily the guise of how much focus he gets. Scourge is the most prolific villain in Ian's run, aside from Eggman himself. While other, better villains like Mogul and Naugus were being imprisoned repeatedly until one retired and the other became a dog, and a huge chunk of the comic's remaining antagonists were being subsumed into the Eggman Empire, Scourge was only moving up, not only being the villain of Ian's first two issues on the book, but continuing to make sporadic appearances for the next twenty issues, before appearing as the new leader of the Destructix under Finitevus in the Enerjak Reborn arc, followed swiftly by a stint as the Big Bad in Bold New Moebius. Does he actually deserve this level of importance? You be the judge, but personally, I don't think so. Even within those stories, Scourge gets special treatment, the biggest and most obvious being Metal Scourge. Now, personally, I think Metal Scourge was a better character than Scourge himself, but the fact that, of all people, Scourge got a Metal counterpart before anyone else, including Knuckles, who had such a counterpart in the games for over a decade by that point. Especially since, well... Metal and Mettle is a fun story, but it doesn't really do anything for Bold New Moebius as a whole, does it? It's basically pure filler, only really serving to add another dead Metal Sonic to Ian's list and stall the plot out for a bit longer. And, of course, the most clear indicator of Scourge's favouritism is that he was he first Archie character to receive his own Sonic Universe arc, and the only one to do so without needing two or three SEGA characters also making up the rest of the lead cast. "Lockdown" isn't a particularly good story, but its existence speaks to not just the insane popularity that such an unworthy character received, but also Archie's willingness to indulge that. Sonic Universe was largely intended to tell stories revolving around the members of the SEGA cast that, for whatever reason, weren't able to regularly appear in the main book. This... frequently got broken, with Sonic, Tails, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Amy all taking centre-stage in the book before obvious candidates like the Chaotix got a look in, some of them twice over, but Scourge was the only time they were willing to try a story based entirely around one of their characters, and they gave it to the already extremely prominent Scourge. It's pretty clear that Ian loved using this character, and did so as much as possible. YMMV on whether that's good or not. Part 4: Scourge OP plz nerf Let's be real, he's overpowered as fuck. Now, overpowered characters aren't necessarily bad, but it's significantly harder to write an OP character than an on-average one, and Scourge didn't work out so well. From the moment he turns green, he's basically unstoppable. The one time he actually seems to remotely struggle is actually in 161, where he looks ever-so-slightly winded after curbstomping Sonic and Shadow at the same time. From then on, while he does start to slowly even out with Sonic, he also continues to utterly demolish basically everyone else, especially his easy conquest of Moebius. It's been suggested that conquering Moebius should be easy, because the big threats are all good, kind people there, but that somewhat ignores that there are anti-versions of the heroes kicking about too. All the (Mostly) benevolent rulers of the Primeverse should be tyrannical despots there, and there are excessively powerful entities like the Anti-versions of Merlin and the Guardians, not to mention whatever horrors Anti-Gerald would've unleashed on the world, and that's without the Suppression Squad themselves. While the comic has generally treated Sonic as being able to stomp the entire rest of the FF, well, who says it has to be a fight? Why the fuck doesn't Patch just poison him? I mean, the obvious answer is "Because then Bold New Moebius won't have a main villain", and sometimes contractual villain immortality has to be a thing, but a good writer should be able to avoid putting the characters in that position. Following on from that, Scourge gets to fight basically the entire FF and Suppression Squad at the same time, (Sonic and Amy are absent and Fiona is on his side), and he's winning until Sonic shows up. Then directly after that is the hedgehog brawl, and despite Sonic managing to get everyone against Scourge, he easily manages to escape and break out his Super form. Even after spending his time in the No-Zone completely powerless, Scourge manages to break out the moment he gets his powers back, despite the prison being full of characters who should be equally or more powerful than him, and the police force that caught them all, basically unchallenged. Scourge never faces an actual challenge in the comic. He never struggles, and the one time he actually loses? Ian makes up some new lore on the spot, which is contradictory to SEGA lore from the same year, and then uses that to have Sonic trick Scourge into depowering himself. Not only does Scourge never struggle with anything, but he also never actually loses a fight. Part 5: When will you learn, that your actions have consequences?! Probably never, because Scourge's actions never have consequences. Throughout his entire run, Scourge gets to go wherever he wants, do what he wants, with or to whomever he wants, and he never has to deal with the fallout of the decisions he makes. Absorbs the energy of a matter world into his antimatter body? He's better than fine, it only made him stronger. Turns up in Knothole with his secret girlfriend's hated arch rival by his side? Never mentioned again. Blows Fiona's connection to him, costing Finitevus' operation a potential spy in Knothole, where Knuckles is? Not even considered a factor. Ditches Finitevus to go and make Moebius into an egopolis? Finitevus isn't bothered, and supports Fiona's efforts to rescue him later down the line after than plan backfired on him. Blinds Patch in one eye out of jealousy/spite? The guy that poisoned Armand and Max, took a torch to Antoine's personal life, took advantage of Sally's frayed mental state, emotionally damaged Bunnie, and tried to assassinate Elias to get what he wanted lets him get away with it. Openly announces that he's going to destroy both worlds? Conveniently does it when he's alone with Sonic so nobody can tell Fiona what she's letting herself in for. He eventually does get sent to jail, but he breaks out with ease the next time he turns up. Because, y'know, that's just what we want to see. Villains never having to deal with karma. Part 6: What does anyone see in him? Scourge doesn't quite get the "everyone loves him" treatment, but he still gets a whole lot more respect than he's ever earned. Both Sonic and Zobotnik are portrayed arbitrarily deciding that maybe there's a shred of good in this monster, and this is the part where I stress that he's abusive again. Maybe if I repeat that enough it'll sink in. Despite knowing full-well the sort of person Scourge is, Sonic's response to Scourge's crappy cribbing of the "One Bad Day" speech is to try and turn it around and claim that Scourge only needs a tiny bit of decency to be a good person, and this is outright untrue, and given what we see of Scourge later, I'm frankly disgusted that Ian tried to pull this with a character he'll pretty much unambiguously portray as an abuser. Zobotnik's case is even more baffling. We're introduced to the guy in the Lockdown arc, and it's implied that he's effectively a tyrannical warden, ruling over the No-Zone with an iron fist, taking an almost sadistic delight in punishing the inmates. But yet, for whatever reason, he decides that it's a good idea to try and rehabilitate Scourge, for no adequately established reason. Even on the other side of the morality line, we have Finitevus, who apparently respects Scourge enough to not just make him leader of the Destructix during the Enerjak Reborn arc, despite him very clearly not being a leader, and not being liked by any of his comrades except Fiona, but then when he promptly ditches the whole plan toward the end, Finitevus apparently decides that he not only wants to get him back, but is willing to go to great lengths and risk losing the only team of mercenaries dumb enough to work for a guy who is quite open about his intentions to "purify the world with Chaos fire" in order to do it. And speaking of, the most egregious case of this comes again in Lockdown, where the Destructix all end up siding with Scourge. Across the second half of the arc, Scourge learns his new team's backstories, and despite them clearly showing traits and beliefs that should make them respect him less, this somehow works in his favour, and he manages to wrest leadership of the team from Fiona. Especially galling is that it appears that Fiona loses their respect early on because of her faith in Scourge, who to them, looks pathetic, but then they end up supporting him anyway, despite doing nothing to earn it. But wait, one's missing... Looks like it's that time again. Part 7: Oh right, he's an abuser. It's time to talk about Fiona. Fiona's heel turn is really, really effective at selling you on the idea that Fiona is a vile, cruel, and selfish person. It's a dramatic, "big bang" moment that, in basically a single panel, got an entire fandom to hate a character. Now for some it was more of a "Love to hate" thing, but there are plenty of people out there who just really hate Fiona for this single moment. And when you're introducing a new major villain, maybe that's what you want to accomplish. What it doesn't do, however, is sell you on her motives for taking that course of action. Fiona, for the rest of her existence, mainly antagonises Sally, whom she has no worthwhile connection to on either side of her turn, other than being the evil Sally to Scourge's Evil Sonic, and stands around or clings to Scourge's arm, looking smug about her abusive relationship. And yes, it is abusive, verbal abuse is still abuse, and the implications that he's physically abusive are present too. I know this is something that Scourge's fans don't really want to accept, but it's true, and we're going to get into that later. For now, what matters is that this character's run as a villain mainly consists of: Fiona: "Hey Sugar-Queen, look at how much my boyfriend yells at me and insults me, and probably beats me when he's angry. I make smart decisions and you suck." We never come to understand why this character, who is so motivated by her belief that everyone will eventually double-cross her that she has decided to start lashing out at people before they can turn on her, is willing to put her faith 100% in someone so repeatedly deceptive that he first approached her by pretending to be someone else. Like, in terms of bad first impressions, that's up there with arriving at a job interview in full clown regalia. The comic makes no effort to show why these characters like each other. Scourge allegedly likes her because she chooses to turn evil and join him, rather than being born evil, but this clashes with not only the fact that Fiona is a genuinely good person before this, who makes a solid effort to stay loyal to her friends first, and is lured into villainy by him, but also the fact that she blames everyone but herself for her current situation, but especially with the fact that all of the foreshadowing for Fiona turning evil consists of people not trusting her because she has a shady history. Scourge claims to appreciate that Fiona is a good person that chooses to be evil, but the narrative has a clear message of "If you started evil, it doesn't matter if you try to become good, you will always revert to type." Which isn't exactly a good message, Ian. In return, all we get from Fiona's side is that Scourge "has no expectations of her and just wants to have fun", which clashes entirely with how we see them interact in subsequent arcs, where Fiona frequently looks disturbed or apprehensive, or just bored, while Scourge yells at her and threatens her for not meeting his standards. Seriously, why do people ship this? But okay, okay. Scourge is a good liar, and Fiona's established paranoia and history do make her vulnerable to manipulators like him, so maybe she falls for his lies and gets taken for a ride. That could happen, sure. Doesn't really explain why she becomes a horrendous person all of a sudden, but whatever. Maybe he convinced her to do it as a sort of hazing, and a means of ensuring she couldn't go back. That fits with his abusive nature (You might also notice that this the explanation I used in Revival). But why does she stay? And why does she refuse every out she's given? Why, after everything that pulled her to his side has turned out to be bullshit, does she remain devoted to him? Now, you can argue that due to the abuse and the manipulation she's suffered, she believes she has to stay with him, and that's a fair shout, but her appearance in Journey to the East is kind of a stumbling block for that theory, because we're shown a Fiona who is fully capable of functioning without him, and even after making efforts to establish herself... the next time we see her she's gone back for him. And now... well, it's time to talk about that "A" word I've been bringing up a lot in this section. Scourge is abusive. I've frequently referenced that he verbally abuses Fiona every time she displeases him across the book, but the most telling scene is this one from Issue 190.

"You do not want to be sent back with me." Translation: "If I get sent back, and you're sent back too, I'm going to beat the shit out of you." Fiona (With her invisible left arm) isn't excluded from this threat. Fiona isn't surprised by this threat either. Nor does she not take the threat seriously. She looks like she's expecting to be struck. He beats her. And please, nobody say that "he's just angry", that's apologism. Now, I dunno if this was in the script, or if Fiona's face was something Yardley did on his own, but given that this arc ends with Super Scourge announcing his intention to destroy both Mobius and Moebius, simply because he can, regardless of the collateral, I'm willing to bet that this relationship wasn't a happy, stable one. But, unfortunately, this element was never made clear enough. Now, your mileage may vary on whether you think Sonic the Hedgehog comics are the appropriate place to discuss abusive relationships or not, but we've got one now, and Ian dropped the ball. This wasn't a Joker/Harley, where the pairing was clearly abusive but also sold DC/Warner millions of dollars worth of merch, this wasn't a RWBY, where Adam took three years to show up and had already won a huge number of fans from his admittedly cool design and powers, so people already liked him before they even knew what his personality was like. Ian had full control over this, no merch to worry about, and Scourge's prolific appearances gave him plenty of opportunity to make it clear that this was an ugly, repulsive thing that Fiona needed to get out of ASAP. And he didn't. Because panels like this, and all the yelling, clearly weren't enough for the fandom. No, you point this detail out to them and they'll make excuses, try to pretend it didn't happen, or just get offended, or worst of all, outright say they don't care and still ship it. We have fanartists who became real official artists creating stories where this garbage-fire pairing is used for sad feels, not because Fiona got stuck in a relationship with a controlling, violent monster, but because oh no they really loved each other and now Fiona's dead isn't it tragic don't you feel sorry for Scourge? No. No I don't. I feel sorry for the thousands of teenagers who support an abusive relationship because Ian was too cowardly to make it clear that the relationship in question was just that. Now, do I think that Ian is an intentional abuse apologist? No. Do I think he wimped out of taking the necessary steps to make it clear that this was bad because he didn't want people to dislike his shitty pet villain? Oh yeah, I do. Scourge's reputation was more important to Flynn than appropriately and sensitively portraying a destructive, damaging relationship between a woman and her monstrous partner. Well, I say "Woman", let's not forget that Fiona was meant to be sixteen, and realistically if you take her timeline into account she's more likely to be about fourteen. Real fucking classy. Part 8: Effort? What effort? So, now we get to our final criteria. And frankly, it's the easiest one to cover. From the moment, Scourge turns green, his life becomes a cakewalk. Everything he ever wants is handed to him with zero actual struggle on his part. Wants to be stronger than Sonic? He is. Zero side-effects to using a Chaos energy form from a mirror universe, or having a Super transformation interrupted, he just seemingly gets to be half-Super forever. Wants another leg-up on Sonic? Here's Fiona, sans personality. Sonic says he's just a lame ripoff of himself? He conquered a planet in a week, look at how cool he is. Also his team all roll over and make him their leader even though they hate him and they could easily kill him. He gets to walk through the entire FF/Squad teamup, and the Hedgehog teamup, and then when he gets to the No-Zone, Zobotnik, who has kept far smarter and more dangerous characters locked up for decades arbitrarily decides to reform him and gets completely suckered by him. The Destructix fully throw in with him, despite him never actually earning their respect. He never loses a fight where he wasn't depowered first. You know what the irony of this is? Ian has a character whom he is contractually obligated to never have lose for longer than an issue or two. And honestly, he wasn't awful at disguising that. Sonic gets a few wins that feel too easy, but for the most part, the issues with this rule mainly manifest in Sonic's limp responses to the tragedies happening around him, and a sprinkling of minor failures and pyrrhic victories ensure that the rule looks more like shoddy writing in a few places unless you're explicitly told about it. And even then, he still manages to make it look like Sonic struggles to attain those victories, that he has to actually put his back into it every time. He is challenged. Scourge isn't allowed to be challenged. That's the irony. Ian has a protagonist who he is not allowed to have lose, and Sonic still manages to be avoid looking like a boring invincible hero, while Scourge just never faces anything that can actually pose a threat to him. Powerful opponents crumple before him. Characters' personalities and development shift to suit his needs. The plot warps to benefit him. Because heaven forbid Scourge actually have to work for his wins. Who needs stakes when you can have the writer on your side! Part 9: In summation... I think you should've all twigged where this is going by now, so let's wrap up. 1) Does Scourge receive a great deal of favouritism from the author? Yes. 2) Is Scourge more powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity? Yes. 3) Does Scourge face zero consequences for his actions? Yes. 4) Is Scourge liked or respected by characters that have no reason to do so? Yes. 5) Is Scourge in a relationship with a character that has no reason to date him? Yes. 6) Most importantly, does the story will bend over backwards to give Scourge easy wins, even in situations where he logically should struggle? Yes. According to these criteria, Scourge the Hedgehog is almost a textbook example of a Mary-Sue. Which is probably why something as disgusting as him got away with so much. I guess, then, that his role in Revival, and a lot of the stuff before that, is the unfortunate reality of a Mary-Sue who suddenly has to deal with the fact that they're no longer getting that special treatment from the writer. That now their actions have consequences, that now the universe doesn't shape itself to their desires.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Ian Flynn #Scourge the Hedgehog #Fiona Fox #Evil Sonic #Critical #CW: Abuse #TW: Abuse

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