every day i get more upset that “i think i found the ultimate lifeform / i think it may be you” line (and sonic’s subsequent pondering about it) gets IGNORED they DROPPED THAT SHIT like a HOT POTATO & i understand why because the sonic heroes tone pivot and the amnesia plot but u dont understand im so mentally ill over the concept of shadow completely shedding this massive huge important part of his identity onto sonic before dying and sonic having to grapple with that. what does he do with that. he doesnt want that kind of title or responsibility or idea of himself, hes just a guy who likes adventure. but shadow gave it to him happily. & when shadow comes back and is basically affirmed in his previous assumption that whatever he would do with it, sonic is already doing. only to be met with sonic giving it back to him like “hey buddy thanks for letting me borrow it but i dont want it ;^-^”. what do you mean you don’t want to be the ultimate lifeform? ITS TOO GODDAMN HOT IN THIS GODDAMN HOUSE i need to kill something. U UNDERSTAND RIGHT. U UNDERSTAND.

📞 a character others dislike but you don’t?

♠️ favorite protagonist?

🕷️a character you feel is underrated?

📞 - a character others dislike but you don't?

Elise has gained more appreciation over time, but you still get people who think she's to blame for everything wrong with '06. She was a decent if underdeveloped character who simply wasn't used in the story that well, and anyone who thinks turning her into a Not-Sally is the only way to fix her isn't trying.

There's also Zor and Marine, both of whom I will always defend. Isn't it wild how I can barely remember anything from The End's three minute tough guy Reddit copypasta, yet everything Zor says is solid gold... shout out to IDW for missing the point and making him an unironic tryhard like every other villain in the comic. As for Marine, people act as though her character development never happened, which isn't helped by Flynn being one of those very people, and I don't understand why they give her flak for her stereotypical accent, yet make no such complaints about Bunnie.

For a couple of non-Sonic examples: King Sombra kind of went through the same arc as Elise in retrospect. As in, nowadays he has more open fans, but back when he made his debut, he received a disproportionate amount of flak for being a mostly silent villain, and the way he was used. I personally appreciated what they were going for with him, mainly cause of how they conveyed his Crazy Prepared defenses and the like, and honestly, by the time FiM concluded, I think he ended up better off than certain other villains lmao.

And of course, Moneybags. Not counting the first game (cause he didn't exist yet), I don't consider it a true Spyro experience if Winnie the Shit doesn't pop up in increasingly improbable locations to make deals in exchange for, *ahem*, a small fee. He also has some of the best lines. ("What are you going to do, sue me?")

♠️ - favourite protagonist?

Gex is unironically a better written character than everyone in Frontiers and IDW put together. This realisation makes me want to drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

Tails has always been my main bro out of the Sonic good guys, cause of how smart he is and how much he wants to help. :D It's also why I'm vocal about how much I despise it when fans double down on reducing the franchise to Just Furry DBZ due to super forms and whatnot, since it means Tails and other characters not named Sonic/Shadow/Silver are guaranteed to be treated even more like they're not good for anything meaningful. >:|

Then there's Spyro of course, which I know will be considered ironic to some given my complex feelings on Sonic, but truth be told, Spyro isn't really that similar to Sonic beyond some snark. He does admittedly act like a dude with tude in the first game, but it's clear that he's younger in that one. From the second game onward, where he's slightly older, he's considerably more chill... at least compared to Bubsy and many others from the 90's. And speaking of, despite his dialogue consisting entirely of WOAH, I respect Crash as well, since it was the bandicoot that got little me into the world of video games.

And many things change, but my fondness for Fluttershy will never die. Just as I have a preference for funny robot-loving villains who nonetheless remain a legit serious threat instead of being a joke, I have another preference for kindhearted quiet characters... which is why I also enjoy Trip... and Tikal... look, we all have our types, I'm sure you can sympathise. ;P

🕷️ - a character you feel is underrated?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies have mostly been pushed aside since Mania came out (aside from that one IDW story, but that's not a blessing), and it makes me madder than YouTubers who pretend they're mad because there are villains with dialogue who have less personality than these guys. They're so much fun, and despite all of them having the same Egg Robo template, their designs remain distinct from each other, even in silhouette form.

I also took to Ariem early on. Like the Heavies, "underrated" refers to general lack of fandom buzz compared to other characters, since although she appears to be quite liked, the acknowledgement given to her is somewhat limited due to her being stuck in an Android-only game for the time being. Some people also have an obsession with comparing her unfavourably to either Sage or Lanolin, for reasons I can probably guess in both cases. Me? I love her design, and her interactions with Cream and Knuckles are cute. :> I know it's not likely, but I hope she appears elsewhere so that she can be brought to more fans' attention... provided she doesn't get IDW'd.

Finally, a more complicated example: Metal Sonic. Now yes, he's very popular and beloved, and remains so to this day, but during the last couple of years, I feel I've been seeing two growing sides in the community when it pertains to him: the side who loves Neo Metal Sonic, and believe he's only a threat in that form like Flynn apparently believes (given how he often turns regular Metal into a jobber), and the side who consider him lame or essentially worthless because of his minimal characterization compared to others. He might not say much, and he might be a hedgehog-shaped tool of Eggman's ambition rather than a complete person of his own, but I believe there's a lot you can do with Metal that wouldn't require turning him into Usurper the Elf Shoes. OVA Metal ain't S-tier for nothing.

At the risk of swinging the bat into the hornets nest for you, what is IDW missing that makes Archie the better comic to you?

The fact Sega wasn't breathing down their throat constantly so they could do whatever the hell they wanted no matter how crazy or problematic? The romance plots? The family drama plots?

(Context that Izzy knows but might be important for anyone else seeing this: I like IDW a lot, but I also missed the boat on Archie. Never read it, intimidated by the idea of trying to catch up now, but I know crazy shit went down in it.)

i think the quickest way for me to explain it is that idw just feels very sterile and low stakes for me. the ocs are cute and all but they're concepts to me, not insanely fleshed out or *real* feeling (which has nothing to do with age btw)

i understand why a lot of people hate archie for having too many ocs or for having penders involved but like... that doesn't negate how crazy insane and fun and dark and elaborate the content was. i have so much to work with when i think of archie as a whole because they gave so much for me to fix or modernize or even just fantastic characters (imo) like mina and fiona and their version of the hooligan characters like 💕💕💕

here's the other thing though: i LOVED metal virus. a lot. it gave me espio back, made silver a character again, got as close as it supposedly could when making sonic traumatized, gave amy a fuckton of responsibility and maturity like she deserves, but also added a lot of depth and newfound appeal and appreciation of characters like cream and charmy and the babylon rogues. tangle and whisper naturally weaved themselves into this arc by having touching and angsty moments without blatantly trying to steal panel time or fan appeal from the secondary cast

my main criticism of metal virus? it takes the older dark robotisizing arc mainly known from archie and underground but takes away one significant thing: eggman being a competent and threatening villain. i LOVE evil eggman i think he deserves to be in control of something like the metal virus, but god forbid he have a skillfull bone in his body these days because now he's running from the virus just like the main cast! urgh,,, i think tinker was a fascinating moment but god i just can't stand idw eggman most of the time they make him way too pathetic so starline can make jokes about him and try to escalate things 💀

oh that's another thing, i think there's a lot of hypocrisy about the penders ocs in archie vs all the new idw characters because my initial response included a segment on how i feel like idw forces fans to love and worship every new addition to the cast even when there's little to no character development, but that feels like something everyone says about archie. i'll never forget when the preview of surge and kit came out and the fandom EXPLODED but like... i barely had anything to say? ME? SPEECHLESS BUT JUST OUT OF NEUTRALITY?!? yeah lol surge is mid to me and i can fairly but probably cruelly attribute almost all of her appeal to how everyone hates penders. oh and big pant cool. but her strength as a character is a result of the uproar caused by scourge and archie, not her own inherent value, which isn't fair in general but also not fair to her idk lol it feels like cheating.

anyways, i'd 1000% prefer messy and concerning/nauseating archie and its army of echidna ocs over the "mandate-restricted" idw which basically does the exact same thing as archie but watered down (including the ocs).

oh okay one more thing— the comics are meant to flesh out the secondary cast from the games because surprise! after 06 we don't get ensemble casts or playable characters other that sonic, so this is a compromise. SIKE! idw ocs are gonna hog panel time, and as much as i love characters like lanolin and belle (and obviously team sapphire) i literally gave up on reading idw regularly because there wasn't anything in it for me and if there was i'd hear it on tumblr and pirate the recent issue lol.

OKAY FINALLY, idgaf about comic beef i think people should enjoy whatever they want even if that means anti archie because like,,, i don't blame you. i just think that we've joked so much about "haha archie RANDOM and also PENDERS make archie BAD" but like... just because penders sucks ass it doesn't mean archie or even his work on archie is as bad as he is. archie actually has a lot of good stuff, and even the bad stuff is elaborate and interesting enough to warrant a rewrite or reinterpretation credit.

tldr; i just think idw is mid and peaked with metal arc which still had some fundamental flaws even if i loved it. i miss my funky archie cast tho