Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[E-122-Psi]

Not to mention, counting all across the franchise, Tails is getting a pretty decent role in Boom right now.

[Kuzu]

Tails is pretty much the deuteragonist of the entire series considering he has the most prominent role of any character barring Sonic & Eggman, and that's the across over 20 years of media and content. Honestly, I feel his fans have no right to complain about his "lack of screentime" when in this context, its simply not playing a large role in a story that's not even about him to begin with. 

[E-122-Psi]

I think it's just he pretty much got forced into a story that obviously had no use for him. If he wasn't in it at all people likely wouldn't have complained. It's why some people hate spotlight stealers and characters who are just put in for the sake of it and even cause a detriment to the plot and characterisations (eg. all the Knuckles cameos in the games series).

[Kuzu]

But that's not the case here...? Tails simply pointless and doesn't have much of a role, its no different from how he was in games like Unleashed. Except here, we don't expect it to be an excessive thing.

[Celestia]

I can understand leaving the Super Emeralds out, it was kind of an unnecessary addition. Super transformations are already extremely powerful after all. No idea what SEGA's deal with non-hedgehog / Blaze super forms is, tho'. Even if it's because of Heroes, that...doesn't answer why Heroes did that in the first place.

 

 

 

Also, kinda unrelated, but why do people call non-game Sonic characters "OCs"? In my experience, literally no other fanbase does this when adaptations introduce new characters. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just...confusing.

[Kuzu]

Well that's kind of what they are, "Original Characters" created for that continuity lol. 

 

 

 

As for the whole Super Form thing, its kind of moot because only Sonic is the one who uses the transformation anymore.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I don't understand the point you're trying to make? You make it sound like every single arc just throws a Sega character with no role just to say "OH LOOK! THEY ARE HERE!!!!". Spark of Light is the only arc so far that has done so and I don't really care, We've had four arcs all based around the same three characters (Blaze, Shadow, and Knuckles), that I feel that finally just getting an arc that's based on the Freedom Fighters (Based on one of my favourite comic exclusive characters no less) is an nice refresher, and I know you're just gonna go back into into a whole rant about Nicole not being interesting as a character etc etc.

 

But Ian tried and as a fan of the character, this in my opinion has been the best arc thus far. Nicole is the focus of the arc with Sally in the secondary role. The name itself makes this very clear. It's not like having Tails present in this arc is doing any harm to the main series. He has still appeared in Champions, he is still present in Boom and the Universe series, I don't see why we're making a big deal of this. We already know the reason why Tails had to be present, that the comic exclusive characters can't get an arc unless a big game character is present. If the cost of getting the first really unique arc since the reboot is having Tails do barely anything, I think it's fine, especially when it hasn't had any effects on his presence in the main series.

[Dejimon11]

Well that's kind of what they are, "Original Characters" created for that continuity lol. 

 

 

 

The way that people use that term makes it seem like their fan characters

[brohman428]

Since this is the topic right now, I guess I can give my thoughts on the Spark of Life arc overall (first time giving a review here). 

While I don't think it was bad I did kinda find it disappointing in some spots. Like, there were parts where I thought I knew where they were going with the plot only to go in another direction that, frankly, just wasn't as interesting as it could've been. The main culprits being NICOLE and Phage. Having Phage being just another Eggman flunky kinda undercuts the mystery and creepiness behind her initial reveal in my opinion. They also seemed to hint at her having some kind of history with Dr. Ellidy and NICOLE, but that never really materializes as it turns out she's just on assignment. However, she is a new character and this is only her first appearance so there's nothing stopping them from fleshing her out more later, but for now I kinda wished we got more from her. Similarly, the reveal of NICOLE's origin was...confusing. Not just the explanation itself but the way it was implemented. It seemed that they were setting up NICOLE to actually be Nikki reincarnated (what with her choosing a lynx form and Ellidy's reaction to it), but it's like they changed their minds at the last second. And Overclocked NICOLE, cool as giving NICOLE a Super form is, felt like an afterthought with how quickly it is introduced and then tucked away. The Digital World falls under the same category towards the end I'm afraid. Would've liked to see more of Sally trying to adjust to it during the fight with Phage and how her mind affects her digital self.

All that said, I don't think this arc was bad. The interactions between the characters were handled pretty well. I especially liked Big in this story, his simple outlook on things, and how he plays off everyone else. I liked the relationship between Sally and NICOLE and the flashbacks shed some light on how far the two of them have come together as friends. Was Tails a bit superfluous? Yeah, but aside from maybe trading technobabble with Ellidy I'm not sure what else they could've really done with him here since this story isn't really about him.

Overall, Spark of Life wasn't bad, in fact it introduced quite a few concepts that could prove interesting later down the line. I just kinda wish we got more out of it than what we did.

[Sunwalker]

Tails is my favorite character from the Sonic franchise. But even then, the Spark of Life arc made me to appreciate Nicole more. To be honest, I didn't care about her before this arc.

Her tragic (but not melodramatic) origin made her more humane and relatable to me.

But I think that Tails did have a role in the story: he was the one who brought the gang there, he helped to locate the emerald, and he tweaked the weapon that Sally used to battle Phage.

[biznizz]

Well that's kind of what they are, "Original Characters" created for that continuity lol. 

 

 

 

As for the whole Super Form thing, its kind of moot because only Sonic is the one who uses the transformation anymore.

 

On the first point, it still seems odd to call the SatAM characters OC's since they legitimately are SEGA's property anyway. It's like... maybe people do, but I've never heard anyone call Chris Throndyke or any of X's characters "OC's". A lot of other things, but not OC's.

 

And on the second one, Shadow would respectfully disagree.

 

 

I can understand leaving the Super Emeralds out, it was kind of an unnecessary addition. Super transformations are already extremely powerful after all. No idea what SEGA's deal with non-hedgehog / Blaze super forms is, tho'. Even if it's because of Heroes, that...doesn't answer why Heroes did that in the first place.

 

...Because they're Sonic Heroes?

 

Honestly don't know why, other than Iizuka & Sonic Team saying, "Because we said so. This is how things are now."

[brohman428]

 

 

 

Also, kinda unrelated, but why do people call non-game Sonic characters "OCs"? In my experience, literally no other fanbase does this when adaptations introduce new characters. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just...confusing.

It does kinda give off the air of a hierarchy of characters. Like, a character isn't "official" unless they're in a game. Disregarding that this is an official SEGA-endorsed comic that they oversee using characters that they indeed own. It's every bit as official as the games, just a different medium. 

[Sonic is a Care Bear]

Even if there is now a mandate on Super forms, it can't be too strict. I know some people like to split hairs and don't consider Overclocked Nicole as a super form, but in basically every important way she is, and I know most people considered it a simple super transformation until the writer clarified her beliefs. Only a very small amount of readers are ever going to see those statements so they'll likely just go on believing Nicole went super and think nothing of it.

 

So like, if SEGA is going to let Overclocked Nicole happen, it doesn't look like the writers have to jump through many hoops to give other characters Super equivalents with different names. Maybe they could just call it Mega Mecha Sonic?

 

Though I don't think SEGA would allow even that for core game characters like Tails or Knuckles.

[Tenko]

Also, kinda unrelated, but why do people call non-game Sonic characters "OCs"? In my experience, literally no other fanbase does this when adaptations introduce new characters. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just...confusing.

This is the same fanbase that throws their toys out of the cot when Sonic is the only playable character in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. There's many things I find confusing about our little fanbase at times >.<

[brohman428]

This is the same fanbase that throws their toys out of the cot when Sonic is the only playable character in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. There's many things I find confusing about our little fanbase at times >.<

To be fair, there's different, and usually understandable, reasoning behind that one.

[Tenko]

To be fair, there's different, and usually understandable, reasoning behind that one.

To a point I can understand that, I mean Tails is probably my favourite current character. Most also know I have an obsession with some of the retired cast. People want to play as their favourite character, I get that, but if people aren't responding well to the main title character of the series being the only playable one and being unable to enjoy the games or listing it as a negative because of that, then either Sonic Team is doing something terribly wrong, or the fanbase is just a little too passionate about their favourite characters. I mean I can't say I've ever seen threads decrying Princess Peach being unplayable in Mario Galaxy and it being rated down by Mario fans because of it.

Anywho that's all off topic a bit I guess. Went to my local and just picked up a batch of comics for the weekend. Probably nothing everyone in here hasn't seen before.

Sonic Archives #24, Sonic Boom #4, Sonic Universe #72, Sonic #268 and #269, also the GN's "The Chase" and "Scourge Lockdown". Saw the Dark Mirror Saga series issue in there too but didn't pick it up yet. Also got Megaman #45, #46 and #47. Got a lot to get through haha

[Sonic is a Care Bear]

I'm sure I saw quite a few people upset that New Super Mario Bros series has two Toads as playable characters instead of Peach, Wario or any of the other cast.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Why are people arguing against a point that wasn't being made? He wasn't complaining about Tails not being the focus of the arc, he was complaining they pretended he'd be important to the arc by displaying him in covers and solicits and then he's useless- and that if this really is some necessary evil to sell a FF arc, if the FF are so toxic to sales that they need SEGA characters nearby, then maybe the SEGA characters nearby keep deserving a bit more respect in comparison instead of being used as a tool.

 

As VEDJ-F pointed, much like "oh Silver is very important to find the traitor" beforehand.

 

Regarding Super forms, Knuckles is the only one who doesn't make sense not transforming. tails only transformed due to the Super Emeralds, which aren't canon as they were just a bonus added to justify going though the same game twice. Yeah yeah Sonic 3 was split in two, but in the split, changes were made- Sonic 3 and Knuckles ISN'T the complete game, as seen by the unbalanced levels and stuff added just to fill gaps like "Super Emeralds".

 

The justification for Super forms in the games is pretty clear- chaos controllers. It's not "hedgehogs"- Amy doesn't transform. Blaze does, as she has control over her own set of emeralds. Therefore, we go back to Knuckles being the only one not making sense- until we remember since Adventure he only really seems to have a connection with the Master Emerald, and never used it for anything chaos control-like.

[shdowhunt60]

Why are people arguing against a point that wasn't being made? He wasn't complaining about Tails not being the focus of the arc, he was complaining they pretended he'd be important to the arc by displaying him in covers and solicits and then he's useless- and that if this really is some necessary evil to sell a FF arc, if the FF are so toxic to sales that they need SEGA characters nearby, then maybe the SEGA characters nearby keep deserving a bit more respect in comparison instead of being used as a tool.

 

As VEDJ-F pointed, much like "oh Silver is very important to find the traitor" beforehand.

Fucking thank you. Someone who gets what I was trying to say. I said many, many times that I don't mind someone who's not a SEGA character getting focus. I have no idea where people even got that idea.

[Kuzu]

Why are people arguing against a point that wasn't being made? He wasn't complaining about Tails not being the focus of the arc, he was complaining they pretended he'd be important to the arc by displaying him in covers and solicits and then he's useless- and that if this really is some necessary evil to sell a FF arc, if the FF are so toxic to sales that they need SEGA characters nearby, then maybe the SEGA characters nearby keep deserving a bit more respect in comparison instead of being used as a tool.

 

 

See, the difference with Silver is that he actually was the focus of said traitor arc :V While Tails was not in regards to this arc, so that's a pretty large false equivalence right there.

 

And the point everyone was arguing against was how people seem to trait any instance of their favorite characters being "disrespected" as some personal slight against them. Nobody here really cares about characters being used to sell a comic aside from you and shadowhunt for some reason, everyone else just kind of moved on from it. 

 

Hell, I even said it was a minor flaw for the arc as well, but I don't know why is it considered such a problem for some people. They never pretended Tails was going to be important, you just saw him on a cover and jumped to conclusions that he would play this major role despite not having seen the arc yet. So ya know, expectations :V

[Sonic is a Care Bear]

Rightly or wrongly, there's a pretty long history of comic books putting cool stuff on the cover that isn't represented in the book itself. Every company does it.

 

This Tails thing is business as usual, though I don't really think he's being as featured on the main covers as this thread is making it out to be. If we count variants I guess? but I think most people know not to take variant covers seriously.

[Kuzu]

Like, where the hell are the complainers about who were upset when they were putting Wolverine on every cover of Marvel despite not being featured in said issues.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Everywhere? It's one of the most common complaints I've seen, to the point it was actively mocked by Marvel itself in covers such as the... was it the What The? There was a satirical Marvel comic circa civil War where they promised a ton of Wolverine variant covers, explicitly mocking that.

 

Nevermind the many complainers when Marvel had those Deadpool variant covers on every comic.

 

I mean, do you need me to go search the specific articles so you can check the comments, or... because this IS a common complaint about Big 2 marketing, as is the constant events, the crossovers...

 

hey what do you know everything Kaminski's having the comic do

[Kuzu]

Everywhere? It's one of the most common complaints I've seen, to the point it was actively mocked by Marvel itself in covers such as the... was it the What The? There was a satirical Marvel comic circa civil War where they promised a ton of Wolverine variant covers, explicitly mocking that.

 

Nevermind the many complainers when Marvel had those Deadpool variant covers on every comic.

 

I mean, do you need me to go search the specific articles so you can check the comments, or... because this IS a common complaint about Big 2 marketing, as is the constant events, the crossovers...

 

hey what do you know everything Kaminski's having the comic do

 

Oh really lol, well at least they're aware of it then. 

 

 

 

I don't know, I never got why people are so offended by that. It's one thing to feature a known character on a cover to sell it but it's kind of another thing entirely to expect everything advertised on said cover to be present in the story. I'm not even much of a comic book fan and I understand that.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Because well, returning to the Sonic context here, if Tails is a focus in the covers, you expect him to be a bit more useful and better written, especially if you're a Tails fan. Not necessarily to steal the spotlight, but a bit more meat to him.

 

I suspect the argument of "and if the FF are that dependent on Tails to sell then Tails deserves more respect" was more an extreme to point out that going with the argument of "Tails was only there to sell covers and that's fine" is denigrating to everyone involved- apparently the FF are so crap they need a SEGA character in the cover to sell, and Tails is so crap that despite being useful he's not worth writing fine.

 

Or "don't sacrifice some characters for others".

 

I'm rambling at this point, sorry.