Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[SBR2]

2 hours ago, Meta77 said:

Super Emeralds are NOT canon to any form of the old game. Its why they have not appeared in any media form since. 

They're shown destroyed in Mania. 

[Mauro Fonseca]

And I'm pretty sure Taxman literally stated the pedestals are just of Emeralds, because Super Emeralds don't exist. They're a reference of a concept that exists IRL but not in-universe. With that said, might be a while until I can find said post over at the Retro forums.

[CertifiedNobody]

6 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

A nice reference.

That's out of universe, not in universe. A reference it may be, but it exists in the universe itself for some purpose.

 

7 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Chaos emeralds. While it's a whole other headache in itself, the Japanese Sonic 3 manual mentions the emeralds being there until recently. The stones in Mania are obviously a reference to the super emeralds from our perspective but they work just as well as symbolic stand-ins for the chaos emeralds.

Despite the Super Emerald statues being much larger than the Chaos Emeralds have ever been? If they had been on the island, you'd think they'd be able to get the size right, and why would they even need stand-ins if the emeralds were on the island?

[CertifiedNobody]

6 hours ago, Mauro Fonseca said:

And I'm pretty sure Taxman literally stated the pedestals are just of Emeralds, because Super Emeralds don't exist. They're a reference of a concept that exists IRL but not in-universe. With that said, might be a while until I can find said post over at the Retro forums.

That's the root of this issue. Statements being made by developers.

I get that Iizuka doesn't want the Super Emeralds brought back because he doesn't want Sonic being too similar to Dragon Ball with different tiers of power. But if they're supposed to be non canon as has been suggested, it causes errors in continuity and makes Sonic 3 & Knuckles much less interesting.

8 hours ago, Diogenes said:

 also wouldn't be unreasonable for the games to be canon individually rather than in their combined form, in which case the Mushroom Hill/HPZ cutscene doesn't exist (and of course in a practical sense the super emeralds wouldn't exist as well).

And for people suggesting that Sonic 3 and Sonic And Knuckles are canonically played separately, tell me how Sonic loses the Chaos Emeralds between Launch Base and Mushroom Hill, and how the Death Egg becomes un-exploded after it's swift demise in Launch Base? Because they made it super clear that it was gone with nothing left at the end of Sonic 3.

Also, while it's not part of the game canon (I think), the Super Emeralds do make a brief appearance in Lego Sonic Dimensions.

 

[Diogenes]

4 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

Despite the Super Emerald statues being much larger than the Chaos Emeralds have ever been? If they had been on the island, you'd think they'd be able to get the size right,

The super emeralds aren't all that much bigger than at least one depiction of the chaos emeralds. The size of the emeralds has never been the most consistent thing anyway; they'll be palm sized one moment, as big as your head the next, whatever's most convenient for the situation they're conveying. Hell, SA2 had a palm-sized Master Emerald at one point.

4 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

and why would they even need stand-ins if the emeralds were on the island?

The emeralds are not on the island in Mania (save for your character having them), when we see the stones acting as stand-ins for them.

Just now, CertifiedNobody said:

But if they're supposed to be non canon as has been suggested, it causes errors in continuity and makes Sonic 3 & Knuckles much less interesting.

There are no significant continuity errors and the Supers hardly factor into the game's story. It's not much of a loss. Certainly not compared to the plothole of where they've gone if they do canonically exist.

Just now, CertifiedNobody said:

And for people suggesting that Sonic 3 and Sonic And Knuckles are canonically played separately, tell me how Sonic loses the Chaos Emeralds between Launch Base and Mushroom Hill

Maybe he simply never collected them in 3.

Just now, CertifiedNobody said:

and how the Death Egg becomes un-exploded after it's swift demise in Launch Base.

We might've thought it was destroyed at the end of Sonic 2 based on the explosions and bright flash to white, but that turned out to not be the case. No reason that couldn't happen twice.

[CertifiedNobody]

5 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

The super emeralds aren't all that much bigger than at least one depiction of the chaos emeralds. The size of the emeralds has never been the most consistent thing anyway; they'll be palm sized one moment, as big as your head the next, whatever's most convenient for the situation they're conveying. Hell, SA2 had a palm-sized Master Emerald at one point.

1: Yes, but they're consistently small in the classic games

2: I've always headcanoned this as the emeralds staying in their "Super Emerald " form but the name not sticking.

3: The Master Emerald changing sizes was clearly implied to be that size due to Knuckles intentionally shrinking it through his connection to the Master Emerald.

9 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

The emeralds are not on the island in Mania (save for your character having them), when we see the stones acting as stand-ins for them.

Ok but did Knuckles create the stand ins? What purpose do they serve? I don't see the point, especially when they don't even resemble the Emeralds.

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13 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

There are no significant continuity errors and the Supers hardly factor into the game's story. It's not much of a loss. Certainly not compared to the plothole of where they've gone if they do canonically exist.

What about the in-game cutscenes contradicting the story like I mentioned with the Mushroom Hill and Launch Base cutscenes? While technically not a plot hole, what about the connections between Hyper Sonic and Modern Sonic? Whether intentional of not, the airdash/homing attack and his green eyes both originated from Hyper Sonic, and it seems easy to surmise that this evolution may have been from the lingering effects of the Hyper form, though that's only an implication at best, and a headcanon at worst.

(This also raises the possibility that Mania and the Modern universe's divergence point isn't Generations, but whether Sonic accessed the Super Emeralds and gain those green eyes & powers, but that's a theory for another day.)

And what plothole? is it really that hard to assume the Super Emeralds reverted back to normal after being used, similar to how they disappeared after usage in Sonic 1?

24 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Maybe he simply never collected them in 3.

If that's the case, then it'd make Sonic 3 the only game where getting all the Chaos Emeralds is the wrong ending.

26 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

We might've thought it was destroyed at the end of Sonic 2 based on the explosions and bright flash to white, but that turned out to not be the case. No reason that couldn't happen twice.

The difference here is that in Sonic 2we see a small boss room in the Death Egg exploding and after it fades to white we're just left to assume it was all destroyed. In Sonic 3, we see the entire Death Egg completely vaporized before it can hit Angel Island once more.

[StaticMania]

14 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

1: Yes, but they're consistently small in the classic games

About as small as Sonic's head, clearly.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I've been wondering about Kit the Fennec. Probably someone said it already, but do you guys think his powers will be related to Chaos?

Like maybe he can do waterkinesis so Starline sends him and Surge to attack Angel Island and kidnap Chaos from Master Emerald? Sound  to me like good way to bring both him and Knuckles into the plot.

(if that prediction is wrong, my second hope is that Mimic shows up. IDK, I just find it funny that he never showed up in main book, but was in both miniseries.)

[Kazhnuz]

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

That's out of universe, not in universe. A reference it may be, but it exists in the universe itself for some purpose.

Well, it doesn't 100% have to. We can put stuff in a game for the sake of it being a nice reference, without it having a strong defined meaning in-universe. A lot of stuff doesn't exist in-universe in Sonic.

 

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I've been wondering about Kit the Fennec. Probably someone said it already, but do you guys think his powers will be related to Chaos?

Like maybe he can do waterkinesis so Starline sends him and Surge to attack Angel Island and kidnap Chaos from Master Emerald? Sound  to me like good way to bring both him and Knuckles into the plot.

(if that prediction is wrong, my second hope is that Mimic shows up. IDK, I just find it funny that he never showed up in main book, but was in both miniseries.)

It would be an interesting link to do. I'm not 100% sure it'll be the case (I suppose it'll depends of if they want Knuckles for the current arc, or for a later one), but it would be interesting to see.

[Diogenes]

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

1: Yes, but they're consistently small in the classic games

They're fairly large in 2 and 3&K's (and Mania's, if we're counting it) special stages, though not quite super emerald big.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

2: I've always headcanoned this as the emeralds staying in their "Super Emerald " form but the name not sticking.

Just sitting there with no indication of how they were powered up? Presumably elevating Chaos to the same form as he does with the chaos emeralds (though we don't see him transformed in the past, the Lost World mural shows Perfect Chaos as we know him)?

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

3: The Master Emerald changing sizes was clearly implied to be that size due to Knuckles intentionally shrinking it through his connection to the Master Emerald.

There's no "clear implication" of that, he just pulls it out of his ass at a fraction of its usual size in one scene. But if a character can do that with the Master Emerald, why can't it be done just the same with the chaos emeralds?

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

Ok but did Knuckles create the stand ins? What purpose do they serve? I don't see the point, especially when they don't even resemble the Emeralds.

Who knows? Maybe Knuckles just got bored. Also they...do resemble the emeralds? Like that's the point of them.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

What about the in-game cutscenes contradicting the story like I mentioned with the Mushroom Hill and Launch Base cutscenes?

The player isn't obligated to go to HPZ from Mushroom Hill so there's no contradiction. And if you simply can't buy "well it turns out the Death Egg wasn't destroyed after all", then we can drop the theory that 3 and &K are canon separately, it's not necessary.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

While technically not a plot hole, what about the connections between Hyper Sonic and Modern Sonic? Whether intentional of not, the airdash/homing attack and his green eyes both originated from Hyper Sonic, and it seems easy to surmise that this evolution may have been from the lingering effects of the Hyper form, though that's only an implication at best, and a headcanon at worst.

This is nothing more than fan theory and can trivially be discarded. And Super Sonic had green eyes in 3&K too so you don't even need Hyper for that anyway.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

And what plothole? is it really that hard to assume the Super Emeralds reverted back to normal after being used, similar to how they disappeared after usage in Sonic 1?

And then they just never came up again? Like that's basically why anyone cares, that these powered-up emeralds granting even more powerful forms exist but nobody ever tries it again afterwards.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

If that's the case, then it'd make Sonic 3 the only game where getting all the Chaos Emeralds is the wrong ending.

There's no harm in that. 3's half a game, it's not meant to be conclusive.

7 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

The difference here is that in Sonic 2we see a small boss room in the Death Egg exploding and after it fades to white we're just left to assume it was all destroyed. In Sonic 3, we see the entire Death Egg completely vaporized before it can hit Angel Island once more.

The explosion looks plenty big enough to destroy it from Tails' position on the ground.

[IWriteAlright]

I don't think surge and kit will be related to anything. When I saw starline not know who shadow is, who Gerald is and the proceed to just do Gerald stuff that reads to me as they aren't even going to reference anything or use related material in their origins. Surge and Kit will largely be their own things, their own characters so the characters that they are based on or maybe pull visual references from maintain their uniqueness and the two characters can be removed if need be. I think the water is just going to be water because sonic is afraid of water. Seems like a waste to me, because starline making a world tour discovering all sorts of magical objects to add to his villainous collection sounds like a fun premise. Could expand or create a lot of sonic lore and the eventual trip to angel island again to stealthily get an energy reading from the M.E to clone chaos or something ( again another geraldism).

That sounds very fun but it at least from the outside seems like they want the game characters to maintain their uniqueness even in small ways like Starline being more of a bio-engineer where as tails and eggman or more mechanically focused. I think Surge and kit will be for the most part their own thing. And then months or years later on a bumblekast Ian will tell us how they intentionally wanted a bunch of references to other material an their creation and it didn't get though

 

[Meta77]

anything dealing with Super Emeralds are literally just fan handcanons there is noting story related dealing with them.

[CertifiedNobody]

1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

They're fairly large in 2 and 3&K's (and Mania's, if we're counting it) special stages, though not quite super emerald big.

I wouldn't as the special stages are inconsistent in general, from how you enter them to what they look like on the inside. And yes, they're bigger, but as you said, not as big as the Super Emeralds. And the increased size was likely either just to make it easily visible, or the sprite artists having trouble with "3D" sprites.

1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

Just sitting there with no indication of how they were powered up? Presumably elevating Chaos to the same form as he does with the chaos emeralds (though we don't see him transformed in the past, the Lost World mural shows Perfect Chaos as we know him)?

I never said it was a flawless theory... Still, there is the case to be made that Chaos may react differently to the powered up emeralds, or maybe he's already "Perfect" and can't surpass that, or maybe the Chaos Emeralds were in their Super Emerald form before Chaos started the Echidna Age of Decline, and they were reverted after Tikal sealed Chaos away as they'd been used, like what I said about Super Sonic.

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

There's no "clear implication" of that, he just pulls it out of his ass at a fraction of its usual size in one scene. But if a character can do that with the Master Emerald, why can't it be done just the same with the chaos emeralds?

Yeah, right before reciting a prayer to use it's power in another way. It should've been established that he could do it in the story, but it's clearly not something most people can do. The Chaos Emeralds don't have a guardian that can change their size.

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Who knows? Maybe Knuckles just got bored. Also they...do resemble the emeralds? Like that's the point of them.

Ok, first of all thanks for my new headcanon that Knuckles is a skilled sculptor and learned it so he has something to do in his free time. Also, while they vaguely resemble the classic emeralds, they're way too big and look like mini Master Emeralds. A stand in should probably be the same size as the emeralds and not big enough to stand on, something the Chaos Emeralds have NEVER been.

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

The player isn't obligated to go to HPZ from Mushroom Hill so there's no contradiction. And if you simply can't buy "well it turns out the Death Egg wasn't destroyed after all", then we can drop the theory that 3 and &K are canon separately, it's not necessary.

But they can, the point of the cutscene is that Sonic and Tails see Knuckles closing a secret door, and going through allows them to discover Hidden Palace Zone and the secret of the Super Emeralds, ignoring this removes the impact of going to the Zone later in the game and seeing the alter you've been sent to desecrated by Robotnik. Just because I'm not obligated to collect the TIme Stones in Sonic CD doesn't mean that Sonic didn't do it in canon. And yeah, I don't think separating the games works at all.

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

This is nothing more than fan theory and can trivially be discarded. And Super Sonic had green eyes in 3&K too so you don't even need Hyper for that anyway.

True, it's just a theory, but Hyper Sonic makes more sense narratively if he exists than if he doesn't. Also can you please show me a picture of this? The wiki says nothing about it and everything I've seen either shows black, turquoise, or red eyes

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

And then they just never came up again? Like that's basically why anyone cares, that these powered-up emeralds granting even more powerful forms exist but nobody ever tries it again afterwards.

In most of the games, they have a  pretty strict time limit and don't have time to bounce around special stages, especially since Modern Super Sonic is likely much more powerful than Classic Hyper Sonic was due to Sonic's constantly increasing power.

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

There's no harm in that. 3's half a game, it's not meant to be conclusive.

But it's mean to be played separately? If it's half a game, then shouldn't the connected, complete adventure be the canon story?

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

The explosion looks plenty big enough to destroy it from Tails' position on the ground.

Maybe, but unlike Sonic 3, we don't see the aftermath where absolutely nothing remains, we only see an explosion.

[CertifiedNobody]

29 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

anything dealing with Super Emeralds are literally just fan handcanons there is noting story related dealing with them.

Maybe from a lore perspective, but Game Apologist's video The Underappreciated Brilliance of Hyper Sonic made a great case for why Hyper Sonic matters and how it emphasizes Sonic's growth, creates a parallel between the opening cutscene and Doomsday Zone, and how decanonizing it worsens the game as a whole.

[Diogenes]

I give up, this is wildly off topic and it's clearly not going anywhere. Believe whatever you want.

 

[CertifiedNobody]

Just now, Diogenes said:

I give up, this is wildly off topic and it's clearly not going anywhere. Believe whatever you want.

 

Ditto. I was trying to figure out how to end this since no progress is being made.

[DabigRG]

For what it's worth, I recall hearing that the Super Emeralds are literally just the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald's blessing. I mean secret Orange Emerald aside, aren't they just the same colors as was normal at the time?

[DabigRG]

On 9/22/2021 at 6:03 PM, CertifiedNobody said:

Not calling you out because this was a different person but it's funny how it's being argued both that we should have more female characters because boys should like them regardless of gender, and that we need more female characters so that girls can have characters they relate to.

One thing this thread has made me realize is that if they're going to add more girl characters, they shouldn't all be part of the same "clique". Male characters like Tails, Shadow, and Espio all know each other, but they're very different in terms of personality and wouldn't be part of the same group outside of emergencies. The covers for the newest comic bother me because it's exclusively starring a group that doesn't resonate with me at all, and I'm glad Surge is going to be different when she debuts.

Admittedly, they did get pretty cast herd-y.

When was the last time The Guardian Angel even showed up without Tangle clinging on?

 

On 9/23/2021 at 6:00 AM, Kazhnuz said:

Yeah, I think that the rules is "only male hedgehog" mostly because it's only "Sonic, Silver and Shadow" have officially one in-story, more than some kind of in-universe rule, and that in Mania they're mostly a nice bonus (to be fair, even in the classic they were maybe that, in that only Super Sonic had a design that wasn't a palette-based effect...)

And TBH, i'm all for restricting it to a small cast of character, it doesn't bother me. I just would prefer if they added a female character that have a "super form" (especially as I feel that it wouldn't not be bad to add a new female character on the same "power-level" than Sonic/Shadow/Silver that would not be trapped in another dimension like Blaze. Because it would add better representation in the character cast and because it feel that it would be interesting to have a new character at this level to shake things a bit. Adding a super form to Amy could be a solution, too, but I feel that adding a new "S-tiers" character would be fun).

 

On 9/23/2021 at 8:22 AM, Razule said:

Knuckles just isn't one of the Emeralds' chosen people.

Even back in Heroes, Knuckles and Tails got those "Super Shields" instead of actual forms. Don't know if that means the "only male hedgehogs" rule was established when Shadow was introduced. Or maybe it was the modern equivalent of their sprites just glowing in classic.

I think it makes Super forms more special if the number of characters who can use them is limited. Like, there doesn't need to be a Super Charmy. The "male hedgehogs only" rule exists because of that, and it doesn't make sense in-universe because it's not supposed to. It's an external rule. 

And even then, I get the feeling that Silver only got a super form because it'd shoot the symbolism of each timeline having a hedgehog in the shoot if he only got a super form.

On 9/23/2021 at 4:11 PM, Diogenes said:

Chaos emeralds. While it's a whole other headache in itself, the Japanese Sonic 3 manual mentions the emeralds being there until recently. The stones in Mania are obviously a reference to the super emeralds from our perspective but they work just as well as symbolic stand-ins for the chaos emeralds.

As In just before that gane or before Sonic 1?

On 9/22/2021 at 7:51 PM, StaticMania said:

I don't know where Surge is either.

Test tube, baby

[MetalSkulkBane]

Random question: would you say any characters in IDW are better or worse written than Archie comics?

(Except for Shadow. I strongly suggest we just skip talking about Shadow).

Overall I would say most of them are better than Preboot and equal to Reboot Archie. With specific cases.
- Tails I think never been better. I don't want to spit on FF, but without them he finally gets way more time to shine, He easily has the most awesome moments from  whole casts.
- Similarly Cream finally found a ways to contribute. I respect Flynn's vision to keeper from fighting, but Archie Reboot was wrong way about it.
- Blaze, while still lacking focus, gets to be more royal, dignified and cool. In Archie she felt a little too much like a hot head. One could argue it's how she was in the games, but I can't say I loved this version of her.
- Finally Rouge (I still think she was the best in Sonic X) finally got to be sneaky and morally greyish. Some stealing, some manipulating Shadow, some contacts in dark market. In Reboot she was just a straight woman voice of reason and Preboot had very little of her (and one unfortunate decision in Treasure Team Tango).

The only one who's arguably worse is Amy. She's a mixed bag. Some great moments like #2 but also lots of generic moments. She's one of few characters that I liked more in both Archie continuities. But I believe she can still catch up.

[CertifiedNobody]

21 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Random question: would you say any characters in IDW are better or worse written than Archie comics?

(Except for Shadow. I strongly suggest we just skip Shadow).

Overall I would say most of them are better than Preboot and equal to Reboot Archie. With specific cases.
- Tails I think never been better. I don't want to spit on FF, but without them he finally gets way more time to shine, He easily has the most awesome moments from  whole casts.
- Similarly Cream finally found a ways to contribute. I respect Flynn's vision to keeper from fighting, but Archie Reboot was wrong way about it.
- Blaze, while still lacking focus, gets to be more royal, dignified and cool. In Archie she felt a little too much like a hot head. One could argue it's how she was in the games, but I can't say I loved this version of her.
- Finally Rouge (I still think she was the best in Sonic X) finally got to be sneaky and morally greyish. Some stealing, some manipulating Shadow, some contacts in dark market. In Reboot she was just a straight woman voice of reason and Preboot had very little of her (and one unfortunate decision in Treasure Team Tango).

The only one who's arguably worse is Amy. She's a mixed bag. Some great moments like #2 but also lots of generic moments. She's one of few characters that I liked more in both Archie continuities. But I believe she can still catch up.

Gemerl is great in this, he wasn't bad in reboot but he was given a very minor role and kinda just sounded like another Sonic.

I'm not a huge fan of Tails but that one moment in All Or Nothing where he's getting infected and breaks down like he did in Sonic Forces hit hard.

I haven't read all of archie, so I don't have a lot of memory of how Silver was, but judging by my profile picture, I'm sure you can guess I'm a fan of how they wrote him in IDW.

[DabigRG]

I feel like half of this is gonna be "There's more paneltime of them, so it's better here!"

And sure, there's logic in that, but quantity and quality do have a divergence.

Amy, Shadow, and maybe Sonic are the clear downgrades, while some like Gemerl and like half of the Zeti didn't have much to compare.

I will say that Blaze is all around better despite having little presence here, though it comes with the slight caveat of the debatable infallibility she became known for.

[UberHoax]

2 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Random question: would you say characters in IDW are better or worse written than Archie comics?

It may not be Shakespeare, but the writing is certainly way more compelling and interesting than the majority of the Archie series.

[Kazhnuz]

Nearly all are better, my highlights are

- Gemerl : he have his own personallity, pretty good humorous moment with is "robotic seriousness", some edge and his devotion to cream was really good.

- Sonic : It's reaally nice to get back a "free as the wind" Sonic. It create some nice dialogs, some excellent character moment. Him having ideals and sticking to it even if it's hard is pretty interesting. He is a bit different between Flynn and Stanley's writing (more dignified in Flynn writing, a fantastic goofball in Stanley's), which create a better diversity of situation for him.

- Rouge : It's for me the best Rouge since a while. How she handle her edgy boy is a bit better than in Post-Reboot where she was just "the serious/intelligent one", and she had some really fun characterization moment (her moment on the Master Emerald was fantastic, same as when she got the longchair from Eggman base).

- The Babylon Rogue (compared to preboot, of course) : Handling them as that team of jerk that can help the heroes sometimes is perfect, and way better than in TTT and that time when Babylon Rogue was under New Mobotropolis.

 

I would also say that I prefer the original characters there, as they're less numerous and more focused (and often more imaginative, imo).

[Kuzu]

I'd say its a case by case basis; I'm one of the few who actually didn't mind Archie all that much before the reboot, but if we're talking strictly about the main cast from the games. 

I like how Sonic is portrayed for the most part, but I'm ngl, I kind of miss when he was allowed to be more of a fuck up and have to wrestle with that side of him more. It made him come off as an actual character to me. That was only of course because he had someone like Sally to balance him out. But without her around or that dynamic, Sonic is pretty much the undisputed hero of the setting. Like I said, I don't hate it, but its definitely somewhat less interesting to me. 

Tails I have no particular feelings on, but I suppose it's nice that he can finally gets more time to shine than playing second fiddle to the Freedom Fighters. 

Knuckles is a downgrade though, I'm sorry. You can say he's "staying true to his character" by staying on Angel Island, but he hasn't done shit and we're three years into this comic. Say what you want about how he was in Archie pre-reboot, but he had a story to tell at least.

Eggman is...more or less the same as he ever was, still a dick through and through. 

Amy....eeeeehhhhhh. She's "better" in some respects, but more boring in others. Glad she doesn't feel like a third wheel towards Sonic and Sally anymore, but on the other hand...well she still hasn't really gotten much focus as of now. 

Shadow....yea, nothing really needs to be said about that. 

Everyone else ranges from being indifferent to better. Gemerl going from a Shard clone to a Robot speak is fucking jarring though, I can't even start to wrap my head around that lmao. Cream also gets much more time to shine without being told by the adults to sit aside. 

[CertifiedNobody]

53 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Knuckles is a downgrade though, I'm sorry. You can say he's "staying true to his character" by staying on Angel Island, but he hasn't done shit and we're three years into this comic. Say what you want about how he was in Archie pre-reboot, but he had a story to tell at least.

I wish he got more attention in IDW, if only because he shines every time he does appear. Perhaps they'll put a little more focus on him after the movie gets wider audiences interested in him. Speaking of which, I can't wait to see how Knuckles is written for the Movie Pre-Quill.