Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Shadowlax]

14 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Oh, okay. I suppose that sounds cynically right.

Though it does little to deter my Neo Metal Virus point.

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Anyway, just to definitively answer my own question, that's another thing I'm honestly of a mixed mind on. On one hand, I'm roughly 60% on Mimic sticking around as a distinct side villain given how easy they made him to manage(outside of content at least). On the other though, the rather straightforward way this story has been developing has already caused some doubt about the intrigue it partially had going in.

I'm not saying characters wont stick . I'm just saying I think this will be fairly self contained

[Marco9966]

Do you think the diamond cutters will turn out to be alive? or not?

[DabigRG]

20 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Do you think the diamond cutters will turn out to be alive? or not?

I doubt it. While we don't the specifics beyond an outline, it sounds like they were among the many killed during the war.

[Shadowlax]

It sounded like from whispers tone that a lot of em seemed dead

[Big Panda]

New graphic novel listing.

[Celestia]

3 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

Do you think the diamond cutters will turn out to be alive? or not?

While I don't expect this kind of twist, I guess it could have been some Ruby shenanigans.

[Shadowlax]

Late but uh, ruby eclipse said a thing on twitter about a thing. Which may lend some credence to the sega mandate situation

 

 

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Shadowlax said:

Late but uh, ruby eclipse said a thing on twitter about a thing. Which may lend some credence to the sega mandate situation

 

 

To be fair, Rise of Lyric is a different setup in a separate subseries.

But I see the point. 

[Marco9966]

Can anybody listen to the 100 question Bumblekast and let us know if there's anything interesting?

[Celestia]

19 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Late but uh, ruby eclipse said a thing on twitter about a thing. Which may lend some credence to the sega mandate situation

 

I've been thinking about it lately and it honestly feels like the Shadow stuff specifically is an English writer and possibly even SoA-mandated thing. He was more or less how I'd expect in Forces, and supposedly he's completely different in TSR's Japanese script. Then you look at stuff like Boom, and while I honestly don't mind him in the comic so far I can see where people are coming from (to an extent).

More to the point it's kind of interesting to see Aaron be open about that. It reminds me of when that WIP Forces script leaked some time after the game came out, and there were some comments labeled AW where he questioned stuff like Tails not trying to fight. But there's a huge difference between that and saying something publicly.

[Marco9966]

9 minutes ago, Celestia said:

I've been thinking about it lately and it honestly feels like the Shadow stuff specifically is an English writer and possibly even SoA-mandated thing. He was more or less how I'd expect in Forces, and supposedly he's completely different in TSR's Japanese script. Then you look at stuff like Boom, and while I honestly don't mind him in the comic so far I can see where people are coming from (to an extent).

More to the point it's kind of interesting to see Aaron be open about that. It reminds me of when that WIP Forces script leaked some time after the game came out, and there were some comments labeled AW where he questioned stuff like Tails not trying to fight. But there's a huge difference between that and saying something publicly.

Flynn said on podcast that he had different plans for Shadow, but SEGA had their own plans, so he had to change.

[Multikaris]

20 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Late but uh, ruby eclipse said a thing on twitter about a thing. Which may lend some credence to the sega mandate situation

 

 

This explains why Shadow's last few in-character moments were in Lego Dimensions and of course, the Twitter Takeovers.

[Shadowlax]

43 minutes ago, Celestia said:

I've been thinking about it lately and it honestly feels like the Shadow stuff specifically is an English writer and possibly even SoA-mandated thing. He was more or less how I'd expect in Forces, and supposedly he's completely different in TSR's Japanese script. Then you look at stuff like Boom, and while I honestly don't mind him in the comic so far I can see where people are coming from (to an extent).

Eh I dunno , or maybe in the sense that iizuka is over here now. Not trying to deny other sega branches their part in myriad sonic related failures. But shadow in TSR's script seems.. the same. People bring this up with multiple TSR characters and honestly the dialog seems the same. Shadow as per the usual uses less aggressive diction but not because some script changes but because shadow's character in japanese is made specially different from knuckles by having him being kind of polite, but cool and a dick. But the script itself ... is largely the same? Even the fake interviews they had with the teams before they came out, the japanese interview had shadow be extra vegeta.In the game itself he's....fine. Infact he isn't aggressive enough? A lot of his dialog , despite apparent never having been a gun agent  ,  is talking about formations and his character specific dialog is uh...mild? You figure someone like him would be extra toxic , but everyone else is a lot more aggressive in their speech and shadow specifically isn't for whatever reason.

Boom was an entire other universe, and to its credit ( if you can give this to them ) shadow was supposed to have more to him. The game was rushed forced onto a console the engine didn't work well one and things were removed ( like shadow's story apparently ) and with the series effectively dying a quick death...we just never got to see it The series kinda collapsed , and a comedy show with no context was left to pick up pieces. Shadow's character is arrogant in boom, but its very obvious a whole story is missing ( along with a bunch of files that suggest this) and its clear he was supposed to have more to his character. But that's a mystery for the ages now. That isn't to excuse the characterization that resulted, the added context still would have been bad. But I think boom being unfinished and another universe seems like a bad example.

Maybe there's some sega exec who really likes vegeta or something in the west, but I don't quite think that's the issue. During one of the sonic streams ruby shows up the guy who's in charge of getting that new IDW comic together and he specifically picked Ian flynn for being good at what he does and the fanbase liked him. That isn't to suggest that guy or his department couldn't just have done that but at the sometime have bad ideas about shadow the hedgehog. It just I dunno it feels like they were content with them doing their own thing.

My idea for what's going on is simply put, iizuka...kinda. A lot of people forget but iizuka is shadow's dad, or one of his many dads. And he's always been the guy to ask about shadow lore questions and sonic lore questions in general. And his answers , much like with the two world thing, often are very contradictory to what everyone thinks is happening. I'm not saying its specifically iiuka maybe its other SOJ staff too, but it feels likes someone has a very particular view of shadow and isn't new. There has always been the potential for shadow to be this kinda of bad version of himself, particularly in his own game. But writers/translators/ect basically wrote him and other elements of the sonic universe in a way to compensate for the bad ideas they may have been feed.

This isn't to say this couldn't just be some initiative by some SOA, who just wants to simplify everyone done and shadow just largely doesn't work that way. And eventually when this explodes they will just bow out and not take responsibility as is often the with higher ups fucking up that thing you like. But this feels like some George Lucas stuff to me, specially prequel stuff. Simply put, there's less of a barrier between the person wanting the bad ideas and the people who now have to execute the bad idea.

But I dunno

 

43 minutes ago, Celestia said:

More to the point it's kind of interesting to see Aaron be open about that. It reminds me of when that WIP Forces script leaked some time after the game came out, and there were some comments labeled AW where he questioned stuff like Tails not trying to fight. But there's a huge difference between that and saying something publicly.

Maybe he wants more folks to see it? This shadow discussion has been , taking up space in the mind  of the sonic fanbase for almost 2 months now. Maybe someone doesn't quite believe him and he wishes to put some spot light on peoples issues so he can show someone and go " people do not like this " while also being polite and not directly saying " Steve from accounting ruined shadow "

[Marco9966]

Ian Flynn said that he pitched another miniseries. Wait and see.

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm listening to the podcast, Ian says he has more freedom (ironically) with characters like Sonic and Eggman than Shadow and G-merl. So that hints at these characters feeling off in the comics. Plus, he answered my question and hints that the Deadly Six are all still available, and will likely show up in the comic. The multiverse may appear, but at this points he says it's basically Blaze's world, the Classic universe and human world. So that would be interesting. I have yet to listen to the rest.

[Marco9966]

He also tried to make Sticks show up twice, but SEGA didn't want that.

So, no Sticks for IDW.

[Red Hot Jack]

Just now, Marco9966 said:

He also tried to make Sticks show up twice, but SEGA didn't want that.

So, no Sticks for IDW.

Thanks so I can make peace with that now. My favorite character who represents my mental state has been killed off and Sega wants to pretend she never existed.

[Tornado]

13 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

He also tried to make Sticks show up twice, but SEGA didn't want that.

So, no Sticks for IDW.

Finally, Sega has made a good decision about IDW. I don't want to get into an argument for criticizing the Boom Characters again, but yes, they were created for an stupid cartoon with Sonic slapped in it. Before Sonic's image was unified. And frankly they are not relevant anymore.

 

[Red Hot Jack]

Just now, Tornado said:

Finally, Sega has made a good decision about IDW. I don't want to get into an argument for criticizing the Boom Characters again, but yes, they were created for an stupid cartoon with Sonic slapped in it. Before Sonic's image was unified. And frankly they are not relevant anymore.

 

I can only understand this comment if characters like Mighty and Ray stay restricted too. After all, everyone including Sticks can have a Modern counterpart, or be restricted to a dead sub-brand in this case. I'm just sad right now.

[StaticMania]

They are restricted....so it's only natural.

[Marco9966]

I just hope they remove Silver and Blaze and treat them like Knuckles for IDW (Knuckles stays on his island) (and Silver and Blaze should stay in their world)

[Celestia]

I wouldn't have minded seeing Sticks (as surreal as it was to see her in the anniversary comics on Sonic Channel a few years back) but I don't like her either so uh...whatever, I guess.

[Red Hot Jack]

It's another one of those cases, like the Freedom Fighters, with popular characters with potential who will never get closure. Instead, we are stuck with the Zeti, I realize they are from a main game but they are still trash to me.

[MainJP]

1 minute ago, Tangled Jack said:

Instead, we are stuck with the Zeti, I realize they are from a main game but they are still trash to me.

From what I've seen most everyone else feels the same way about them.

[Shadowlax]

3 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

Can anybody listen to the 100 question Bumblekast and let us know if there's anything interesting?

I got you, so questions that are not interesting or weird in a way in which I don't want to bother with i'm not including

1) book takes about 1-2 weeks to write

2) Bean and some other obscure characters he thinks can't be used. He has not checked, but he suspects that they now fall under the classic umbrella

3)Not sure if tangle and whisper can bigger merch , but ask sega

4) The metal virus would have been different in Archie. Nor was it a fleshed out idea

5)Ian Flynn thinks that Vector should have been the leader of the resistance because knuckles is a recluse he's not a people person or a leader. Vector has experience commanding people and being an effective leader.

6) Ian Flynn says that the idea of the comics being reflective of canon is a fine line to walk. Some characters are more tightly regulated than others. Specifically uses the example that he is free-er to use sonic and eggman and interpret them weird than shadow and germil . He tries to be true to those characteristics. He doesn't like to say the comics are canon in any capacity because the games take precedence and if the games changes something, he has to change it which will render his previous work untrue. He tries to be true to the game characters while putting what he think's would be a fun spin on them. As much as he can.

7)He hadn't thought about adding LGBTQ+ characters in the megaman book because most of the robot masters in classic megaman are presented as children. And didn't want them in any type of serious relationships. Iceman being interested in roll is is some cute kiddie stuff. Also most classic megaman robot masters aren't supposed to be sapient. The reploids in X are much easier to conceptualize relationships + them being older. He may have been able to add LGBTQ human characters. Maybe it would have been able to do it if it went on. He has knows not what capcom would have thought about it

8  ) Someone asked about things that would happen in a Sonic x Starfox crossover. Says it would depend on who would be approved. First thing gag he can think of is the starfox characters going " where are your pants " and the sonic characters going " why are you wearing so many clothes " . Slippy and Tails would hang out. Sonic and Fox would get on alright, but he already has a " sonic " and his name is falco and fox might not wish to deal with two of em.

9) Sonic megadrive overdrive seems lost to time, but not never... just don't hold your breath.

10) The splash damage ability of the zombots is something he wishes to address later, stay tuned.

11) The other zeti are not gone or off limits . He shrugged . He doesn't know . He thought they would be , he doesn't know what's going on.

12) Other characters can't use other looks from other series. No boom amy outfit as a one off thing.

13)Folks were wondering why did they say the M.E was hidden, then almost immediately they find it and you can literally see it. Sega had notes and changed that story and how sonic works around halfway through which I suspected. Personal Note: I suspect the Angel Island can't travel through dimensions as people may have suspected.

14) Does not think that the criticism of issue 14 is wrong. Weird discourse came out of it about shadow's personality he likes.They joke about shadow and the sonic characters in general having inconsistent characters.  He wishes he could do something he had back in archie, but they don't want his character to be like that. So that's not where he is.

15)Will sonic actually deal with the notion that he kinda messed up the planet due to eggman leaving: Keep reading

16) Sonic does pay taxes because there is no such thing as money on sonic's world according to sega. 

17)Sticks got turned down appearing in the book , twice. Ian does not think she's off limits forever though. He doesn't know what the issue is.

18) Ian Flynn hates robo-relationships. No i'm joking, uh his continuity's kept getting thrown away everytime he shipped a robot with someone. He wanted espio and nicole to be  athing, people liked shard and nicole more. So he rolled with it

19)Where they left off in the old series, Sally and Nicole were not in love , YET. They had planted the seeds but uh, book died.

20)You are never gonna see buddy in the book. You cant define him enough and people got attached to their own buddy, just isn't worth messing with it. They exist somewhere in the world though.

21)Ian Flynn doesn't know when the arms comic is coming out. He wrote it, that's all he does.

22) NeoMetal Sonic could turn super because he framed it like mecha sonic turning super and they didn't mind. Doesn't know if he should have left it there, or go full on master overlord. Nicole being overclocked only worked because it wasn't a " super " form. They joke about it, it was a loop hole.

23) he hasn't been given any information on infinte. He assume that inifnite's age is 15-20 ish like most sonic characters. Aside from being the leader, he has no idea what relation he has to jackal squad.

24 ) don't think he will return to the slowburn style of story telling for sonic. He feels like a lot of Archie stories probably could have been much shorter. And upset that he wanted to do stuff and then book ended. Wants to approach IDW with a more fast pace action focused comic.

25)you will find out why whisper has the whisps she has, in the spin off book

26)If sega ever wanted him to write a game, he would love to. He probably wouldn't have the creative influence that he does with comic, he thinks.

27)Not gonna spoil anything for season 2 ( the question was about super sonic ) . Whisper likes poundcake. Tangle likes strawberries apparently? There was a question about a shadow arc, he didn't answer.

28)He doesn't feel like the retcon is much of a retcon with the two worlds thing. It was just never illustrated well. He doesn't know what the chaos emeralds are in terms of where they are from. They just hop from reality to reality , that's what he things.

29)Ian Flynn has read some of the star-wars extended universe. Didn't really of the new extended universe.

30)Jackal Squad is dead. Ripperoonie. Doesn't know if shadow killed them or just beat up some much they couldn't do anything. He doesn't know. The impression he got is that shadow killed them and why infinite has such an issue with shadow. They are off limits. Personal note: Which would explain the " I'm not weak thing " because he felt like he was too weak to save or avenge his friends. This is not communicated well in any media including these characters at all.

 

Ok Got to go be an adult for a bit. Will come back and finish later. Reminder this isn't all the questions a couple have been skipped due to them just not being that interesting. i'm at 48 minutes 13 seconds. Will come back to finish later