Megathread The Lara-Su Chronicles and Ken Penders topic - READ PAGE 164, POST 4096

[Wittymations]

It still amazes me, after changing so much about his characters, why does he need his characters again? He wants to continue the story, but without really continuing the story.

They're aliens, but they're the same character, but they're not. But they're needed, but they're not the same characters, but they are, but they're  not.

 

I really want to understand what makes him tick, but it'd probably be similar to this.

 

[Marek Follower]

I joined up yesterday so I could join in this discussion, much like Erynn did. But, now that I think about it, what could I possibly say that the people here haven't already said about this man?

 

I first started reading Archie Sonic comics back in 2010 near the beginning of the Iron Dominion arc and it helped spark my interest in writing fanfiction. I was amazed at the amount of lore that that comic book had. Characters that I never thought were possible to exist outside the mainstream games. Regions completely unique and established compared to the constantly-changing ecology of the SEGA Sonic realm. A history deep with war, drama and mystery. I went all the way to #1 and worked my way up to the current issue at that time. Needless to say, I instantly fell in love with this version of Sonic and his homeworld. I can't say I enjoy the book as much as those who have been with it since Issue 1 was published, but it opened a whole new world of interest in Sonic for me.

 

And, then, good ol' Ken Penders had to take all that away for himself; suing Archie for the rights to his material with no regard for the fanbase or even his own fans who may have stuck with the book after his departure. The stories he made for the book are indeed confusing, but the world that resulted from his work was far more creative and colorful than SEGA's, which was always changing and is never consistent.

 

But, then he had to come back and rip it all away, forcing SEGA to step in and point the book in the direction that they want it to go in. Personally, I like where the book is going now, but I also haven't been keeping track of it as closely as before since I just feel like the book will never be as it was, especially now that SEGA has exerted more of its control and limits onto it.

 

And, like Dreamcast said above, Penders retrieved his characters, but then decided to change them. What was the point? It's not like Archie would've sued him when he started releasing announcements about his project, had the lawsuit never happened. The only reason I see for him changing up his characters is SEGA wanting to sue him for similarities to their designs. I would go into how douchebaggish it was for him to sue them over Sonic Chronicles, when he's clearly referenced other people's work in the comic himself, but I think I've droned on enough.

 

So, yeah. The man really needs to get over himself and needs to stop planning ahead with this project of his when he hasn't even gotten one thing finished yet. The heat he's gotten and is still getting, especially online, isn't going to help the first part of his project get off the ground. But, I really hope he keeps giving himself heat. All the more savory it will be when TL-SC tanks.

[biznizz]

https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/479398829570007040

 

Ken would have first-hand knowledge on how to hurt the Sonic franchise, so I guess he'd know if SEGA was doing it... /sarcasm

[Tenko]

Its funny really, cause when you think about it, apart from in the Japanese manuals the classic games that launched the empire had no continuity as he percieves it. It was all very lose up until Sonic 3 & Knuckles which obviously followed each other story wise pretty closely.

SatAM was the first one to provide any legitimate continuity and character development during Sonic's golden era and even then most of the stories were disconnected up until the final arc, with only slight connections between some episodes like freeing Uncle Chuck, often it wasn't needed or obvious that episodes followed on or had to be watched in any order. Same went for Adventures of, and the early Archie comics, all separate stories not seemingly connected until the Chaos Emerald arc in Adventures.

All these things were popular, the early comics, the shows, the games. They launched Sonic and none of them had real continuity. I don't see why it's such an issue to him, why he feels the series needs it.

Even the character development is a tough one, I mean we haven't had what he seems to believe is "real" development outside the comics and SatAM and and yet what we get in the series seems to be enough to sell the product. There's a few out there that wouldn't mind a bit more of it in the series, but there's a larger group that just don't care. Its a series about a blue hedgehog and his battle with his friends against an evil scientist wanting to turn all the animals into robots and build his personal super city/theme park. Do most people need more than that to get into a platformer?

Again he seems to be very off kilter with his own ideals that the series should be some sort of really deep drama and relationship type entity...which it isn't apart from in the comics. If the movie is aiming at general audiences then they would be wiser to just go with the game setup, lighthearted and to the point. Not some deep drama nonsense, that's not how the geberal public that knows of Sonic sees him or the series at all.

[Zaysho]

https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/479398829570007040

 

Ken would have first-hand knowledge on how to hurt the Sonic franchise, so I guess he'd know if SEGA was doing it... /sarcasm

I'm far too tired to deal with Penders's nonsense right now, but I would love for him to explain all this behind the scenes stuff he keeps talking about. Sonic X? A "a screw-up of colossal proportions"? Even if it wasn't that good a show, it got 40 issues (hey look, five more than Knuckles!) of a comic book, it did so well internationally that a third season was produced exclusively for those markets, and had some decent merchandising behind it. Even if the main Archie series is partially responsible for keeping Sonic relevant between lulls in game releases... that's kind of the point of the comic book existing in the first place. Unique world or not, the book was meant to remind you that, yes, Sonic is still around, so check this out while you wait for the next game. BUYBUYBUYBUY

He's overselling the importance of the comic, which is somewhat laughable when he only sees comics as valuable for springboarding multimedia merchandising efforts. But then, I'm pretty sure he only means "his" material and stories.

Then again, maybe I'm crazy or something. *eyeroll*

[Johnny2071]

After reading nearly every post in this thread, it has become painfully obvious that Penders has no love for the Sonic series, or its fans. The whole Lara-Su Chronicles and the alleged movie deal is just a gigantic showcase about him and his ego. Does Penders seriously think that people (especially new readers) are going to give a crap about his story and characters, without there being any other Sonic characters and Mobius Prime Zone to connect them to, much less the actual video game franchise the comic was meant for the the first place?

 

Speaking of which, lets list the many multiple plot points that were abruptly unresolved by Penders' selfishness:

• Knuckles lost his entire brotherhood of echidnas!
• Thrash got away unpunished!
• Sonic, Tails, and Amy were with the Artic Freedom Fighters!
• Silver stopped the whole traitor accusation search!
• The Tails Doll fandom came true!
• There was Team Freedom!
• Sally was going to be saved!
• There were other Grand Masters!
• The Nerb Freedom Fighters!
• Lightning Lynx was going to get back at Conquering Storm!
• Geoffry St. John was possessed by Naugus!
• Snively fate and the Iron Queen with his robotic fake.
• The Secret Freedom Fighters
• The Hope-Snively conflict
• Duck Bill as a Grand Master out of pure reluctence.
• Augustus the Polar Bear's fatal injuries in issue 247.
• Bunny and Beauregard
• Bunny finding her niche, after being de-robotized.
• Mighty and Ray's chances of being permanently reunited with Matilda.

When it comes down to his friction with Archie Comics, the many lawsuit battles, and the results of his "victory", you have to wonder, who is Penders truly angry at to go this far in hurting a major medium in an already crippling franchise?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So I'm new to the forums but I been reading all the posts here and have been reading them on the Bumbleking forums as well and what do I have to say on the topic?

 

First off, one of Pender's big selling points aka ''Find out what happens to your favourite characters'' is stupid. Why? No one was asking that question. Thanks to Ian's 30 Years Later arc in Sonic Universe we already knew the fate of our favourite characters. Julie-Su was happily married to Knuckles and was ensuring peace for Mobius. Lara-Su was taking on her new responsibilities as Guardian. Lien-Da was either wiped out of the timeline or was changed to fit into the new timeline where she has no memory of being King Shadow's right hand woman etc.

 

So exactly why would anyone care about the characters future story when they already have seen what will happen to them. Even then, most people agree that their favourite characters were written way better under Ian and other writers rather than Penders.  Most also agree that M25YL was a extremely boring arc and that 30LY arc was better but still not one of the better ones (Although I personally liked both arcs to be honest although I've only read bits and pieces of 25YL)

 

Next is the art. The art that has been shown so far is crap in my opinion. Especially the fear enducing Lien-Da. Even before the CGI Lien-Da came out, I hated her 2D redesign as well. First off, why does she wear bright green and bright green makeup? On top of that she's wearing high heels and a dress. Why would Lien-Da, a character who's been clearly shown not to give a crap about such things suddenly wearing this stuff? Wouldn't it make more sense if it was at least Julie-Su? I mean it wouldn't look much better on her but at least in M25YL, she's shown to have turned into more of a girl where she would wear dresses, swimsuits, etc. Now with the 3D Lien-Da -Shudder- That thing is ugly. I'm being blunt sure but It's true, It's ugly in my opinion.

 

Another thing that really annoys me is how he is planning this whole big series out of it. I mean a whole graphic novel series, a movie, a app and a whole load of other things. But he doesn't even know what the first novel will be like. I mean most of the Sonic community are angry at him and think the project is crap. As for non-Sonic fans? OK let's be honest. He said he's aiming the book towards a teenager/young adult audience. Can anyone here really tell me honestly that they expect a teenager to go inside a comic shop and see a book which looks like more ugly versions of Sonic characters, can you honestly tell me that they would pick up that book rather than something else.

 

I mean imagine if you went into a comic shop without any knowledge of the Archie Sonic series or The Lara-Su Chronicles. If you seen for example, The Lara-Su Chronicles and Sonic Saga Series 3 beside each other, which do you think would get picked? The book which shows a bunch of random characters who look ripped straight out of a Sonic book or a book which shows Sonic knocked out and being captured by Eggman? Even then, most teenagers are not going to go running to a book filled with characters who look like they are from Sonic.

 

I'm sorry for being so negative in this post but this is my honest thoughts about what has been shown about The Lara-Su Chronicles so far. 

[Tenko]

Reading his old works again his writing and delivery come off a bit like Richard Knaak, and what he did with the Warcraft novels, creating his own characters and making them akin to main characters that had been in the lore for years and making the main cast seem like bumbling idiots next to his characters. (I think I may have made this comparasson before, forgive me if I have but its so striking). They share the same fetish for only using characters that can further develop their own creations, and also making their own characters the center focus, via a pre-established character having some form of close relationship with these otherwise unknown characters or making them tread the same ground as them and lifting them to the same status if not higher than the heroes the book is meant to be about.

It's even more obvious that he thought his characters where on the same ground if not better than the pre-established heroes and villains by not just giving them up and wrangling them back to use them as the main cast of his own series. The numerous quotes he has made over the years like that one about the Legion being far more of a threat to the cast than Eggman ever was, and that his echidna techno army could essentially take down the main series villian if they wanted to is yet another example.

It may just be me reading too much into it but Geoffrey was basically his Sonic and Hershey his Sally, he was building Lara up as his Knuckles, making the Legion his Eggman army. The comics kind of get more and more saturated with his own personal agenda the further in you read, up until he was removed of course. Tell me its not just me being vindictive thinking these things?

Edit : Also Ken seems to think that a romantic relationship (mentioning Sonic & Sally) is the key to a successful film adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog. I have to ask...why? Romance is not first thing I think of when I think Sonic the Hedgehog. I doubt it would be for any average joe that knows of Sonic and would attend a film version either.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I honestly don't see why he believes Endgame would be good enough for a movie. First off is if they were going to choose a arc from the old universe, do you really think they will go to the arc that most people didn't like and found a lot of plotholes in it. Along with that it would require far too much time to set up. You'd have to introduce the normal cast along with Penders characters like Drago and Hershey.

 

Then you'd need to fit in the whole story like why does Geffory have a grudge against Sonic or why Snively is so keen on backstabbing his uncle or how Doctor Qwack knew he would try it. Along with that, why would Sega even bother going with that arc when first off he went and took a crap ton of characters resulting in a soft reboot, and second is Sonic Chronicles. Even then if they really wanted to pick a arc to make a movie out of, there are far better old universe arcs to do it with that could easily have the Penders characters removed to make a movie with.

 

For example, they could use the Eggman Empire arc. A arc where the stakes are high and would be perfect. Start it off with Sonic beating Eggman and showing Eggman work on his game plan. Then maybe cut it away to Antoine's preposing to Bunnie. Then have a bit of set up to introduce the characters and have Bunnie and Antoine's wedding. Then show Eggman and Snively attacking and capturing Knothole save for Sonic,Tails,Knuckles, and Amy and then show the rest of the movie with Sonic getting his ass kicked by Eggman in his new mech, Sonic then joining up with the others to make a plan, then have them storming Eggman's base and saving everyone, and then have the final battle take place in the new knothole created by Nicole where The Freedom Fighters and Chaotix work together to destroy Eggman's mech.

 

Eggman Empire is a arc that barely makes use of the Penders characters so they could easily be removed and there you go, a arc which is exciting enough to have high stakes and is even better than Endgame (Well Eggman Empire is better than Endgame in my opinion anyway.)

[Delta Starfire]

Edit : Also Ken seems to think that a romantic relationship (mentioning Sonic & Sally) is the key to a successful film adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog. I have to ask...why? Romance is not first thing I think of when I think Sonic the Hedgehog. I doubt it would be for any average joe that knows of Sonic and would attend a film version either.

 

Sadly, this is not a mentality exclusive to Penders. It's a Hollywood mentality in general. They think women will only be interested in a film if there is romance in it, which is why almost every film ever made has romance shoehorned into it (often badly). As a woman, I find this patronising and insulting. I appreciate good romance. I do not appreciate romance that's just there because someone thinks it has to be. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So he believes having a romantic relationship between Sonic & Sally is the way for the movie to be good yet he wants it to adapt EndGame. You know that arc where Sally is killed in the first part? Where she isn't even seen again until the ending and even then she just flat out kisses Sonic as soon as she's awake? Anyone notice the problem and contradiction between these two things? 

[anna]

Well, it's Penders- do you really think he's thought it out that far?

 

In any case, I absolutely agree with Bethany. Geez, Penders, I didn't think I could dislike you any more. 

[horridus]

So he believes having a romantic relationship between Sonic & Sally is the way for the movie to be good yet he wants it to adapt EndGame. You know that arc where Sally is killed in the first part? Where she isn't even seen again until the ending and even then she just flat out kisses Sonic as soon as she's awake? Anyone notice the problem and contradiction between these two things? 

 

Anyone who isn't Penders does. He fought so hard to kill off Sally for realsies, even going so far as to try and have her 'survival' be a robot duplicate in reality, that SEGA had to step in and put him down, and do take note that at that time they were relatively hands-off when it came to their spinoff properties. Even better, evidently he intended Elias to act as Sally's *replacement*. Any claim he makes about believing her to be an important part of things is just bunk, plain and simple. 

 

Similarly, his claims about the importance of Sonic and Robotnik's state as enemies is just as hollow, coming from him; he tried repeatedly to have the guy perma-killed, and then tried to have his position as top villain of the comic usurped by his own pet creations. He's ranted and raved about how much *better* his Dark Legion was, and tried to present Dr. Droid of all people as an 'ultimate' counterpart to Robotnik, and I'm pretty sure he was intending for Ivan Kintobor to replace Eggman as top villain as well. 

 

Heck, most recently, as part the latest round of trying to justify why the public is magically more familiar with the comic than the globally released games, Penders had THIS comparison to make with regards to Sonic and the public perception of him.

 

This would seem to imply that Pendejo himself has a better insight into Sonic's character than most... which would be true, if he had ever bothered to do anything with him. Seriously, read over his run; he does precious little to examine Sonic as a character, or to develop him. He does little to really visit on just how much Robotnik took from him, how he himself views his life and conflicts, or his relationships with other characters... he put far, far more attention onto Knuckles. While part of me would like to think part of the reason for this was that Knuckles had fewer expectations as a character, I just think it was because he could not be bothered to build on what had come before. 

 

Also, hello everyone; longtime lurker, first time poster, here to contribute to the myriad insights on just how much of a hypocrite Penders is. Atonement for being a defender of his for so long. 

[anna]

Welcome to the party, Horridus!

 

But yeah, Penders is a huge hypocrite. Honestly I don't think the man has even heard of the notion of thinking things through...for the LSC it really just seems like he's doing a whole: "Oh, that sounds good, I'll put that down! Oh, this, too! AND WE GOTTA HAVE SOME OF THIS, YES."

_{^{When hasn't he, though?}}

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Anyone who isn't Penders does. He fought so hard to kill off Sally for realsies, even going so far as to try and have her 'survival' be a robot duplicate in reality, that SEGA had to step in and put him down, and do take note that at that time they were relatively hands-off when it came to their spinoff properties. Even better, evidently he intended Elias to act as Sally's *replacement*. Any claim he makes about believing her to be an important part of things is just bunk, plain and simple. 

 

Similarly, his claims about the importance of Sonic and Robotnik's state as enemies is just as hollow, coming from him; he tried repeatedly to have the guy perma-killed, and then tried to have his position as top villain of the comic usurped by his own pet creations. He's ranted and raved about how much *better* his Dark Legion was, and tried to present Dr. Droid of all people as an 'ultimate' counterpart to Robotnik, and I'm pretty sure he was intending for Ivan Kintobor to replace Eggman as top villain as well. 

 

Heck, most recently, as part the latest round of trying to justify why the public is magically more familiar with the comic than the globally released games, Penders had THIS comparison to make with regards to Sonic and the public perception of him.

 

This would seem to imply that Pendejo himself has a better insight into Sonic's character than most... which would be true, if he had ever bothered to do anything with him. Seriously, read over his run; he does precious little to examine Sonic as a character, or to develop him. He does little to really visit on just how much Robotnik took from him, how he himself views his life and conflicts, or his relationships with other characters... he put far, far more attention onto Knuckles. While part of me would like to think part of the reason for this was that Knuckles had fewer expectations as a character, I just think it was because he could not be bothered to build on what had come before. 

 

Also, hello everyone; longtime lurker, first time poster, here to contribute to the myriad insights on just how much of a hypocrite Penders is. Atonement for being a defender of his for so long. 

 

Is he freaking serious? He actually thinks that the game gave Sonic no character at all and his writing did? No. Just no Penders.

 

I can tell you know from playing Sonic Adventure the kind of character Sonic is. I can even go to something like Sonic Colours or Generations and tell what kind of character Sonic is so do not try to give people shit about who knows Sonic's character. Especially considering I'm in the UK so it was years before I even got the chance to read the comics on the Sonic Comics app. But It's weird how I knew the characters. I'm telling the truth here that when I was younger, my first Sonic game was Sonic Heroes if I remember right. Even then I knew what Sonic and his friends' personalities were.

 

I loved Sonic X when I was younger because It stuck more closely to the games' characters and story, being able to handle things likes Chaos emeralds, and even adapting game stories. I also seen SatAM on Pop! which was also another Sonic related thing i liked watching. But anyway the point is I didn't read any of the comics until later and I still knew Sonic's personality.

 

He is a free spirit, someone who can look right into the face of danger and still come up with a joke or taunt. Remember Sonic Adventure 2 what he says to Shadow? ''What you see is what you get, a guy who loves adventure!'', He fights to save his friends, he fights for freedom for his friends, and just fights for the fun and adventure of it as well. Sonic X may not be canon but if any friends of Sonic were hurt, he would get serious and even his taunts would get more darker, shown with Dark Super Sonic.

 

So exactly how did Penders write Sonic? Well from what I've read of Penders' Sonic, he used more dated terms, he cared more about relationships, he talked more like he was still in the 90's etc. I've honestly seen more personality with the game version, There were a good few times that Sonic matched his game version but still Penders has no right to say that the main character of the game series only had a personality in the comics and especially considering he's talking about EndGame, It gives the impression he's referring to his way of writing Sonic which felt like 90's writing and heavy information drops in character dialogue.

 

Don't even get me started on Evil Sonic. Ian's version of Scourge is one of my favourite Archie Sonic characters but I despise how Penders wrote Evil Sonic. How does Ian write him? Scourge is a power mad evil version of Sonic who cares about nothing other than him and maybe Fiona. He has Sonic's negative qualities pushed to 110% along with reversed positive qualities such as how Sonic fights for his friends and for freedom, Scourge fights for himself and to give himself power and rule (Again maybe sharing that with Fiona.)

 

Evil Sonic when written by Penders? He was a generic jerk. His dialogue consisted of even more 90's terms that tried to make him look cool and still only come off as awkward and dated. From what I've read of Penders' Evil Sonic, he is just a generic jerk who has dated and bad writing who tries to make himself sound cool when he fails at it big time. Then don't even get me started on that joke of a landmark issue named Issue 150. What did we get with other landmark issues? EndGame, Eggman Empire, Turnabout is Fair Play, One Step Forward etc.

 

What did we get for Issue 150? Evil Sonic switching places with normal Sonic and being a generic asshole as he goes around all the girls in Knothole and gets them to go on a date with him. Not only is it bad that we get a completely stupid plot for Issue 150, we also get randomly thrown into this situation with nothing to explain how Sonic and Evil Sonic switched. So we get a entire issue without normal Sonic while a landmark issue gets wasted to tell a stupid story with a generic Evil Sonic running around with all the girls in Knothole all the while still trying to sound and act cool.

[Delta Starfire]

So, to el Grande Pendejo, Sally is basically a woman in a fridge.

 

You want to make me hulk out and smash things, Ken, that's how you do it. 

[horridus]

So, to el Grande Pendejo, Sally is basically a woman in a fridge.

 

You want to make me hulk out and smash things, Ken, that's how you do it. 

 

It even goes beyond that, if you can believe it. It wasn't enough that he wanted to kill her; he wanted her *replaced*, by her brother who was never mentioned once before his debut storyline or even hinted at, and under his pen received no memorable characterization or character traits beyond 'Brother Of Sally'. Even in an industry infamous for its less-than-stellar handling of female characters, that's a whole new level of sexism. His writing of Sally in GENERAL is just plain lousy; he makes her submissively obey her clearly-not-right-in-the-head father, never once having her call him out for the various dipshit things he did in the comic, and even nearly went along with marrying Anti-Antoine without even trying to challenge the fact she was being forced into it. 

 

He likes to talk a good game, even try to present himself as some kind of progressive, but his writing does not begin to support that notion... you can see it even in the advertisements for LSC; we have seen nothing of the title character, and yet he goes out of his way to explain the importance of a new, male character created specifically to act as an audience surrogate (so much for catering to 'young teenage girls' there), and even releases a (really badly made) turnaround of his design in the hopes of people making fan-art of the guy. 

 

I don't put on the Social Justice hat often for various reasons, but this guy is just.... astounding. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Vegeta-The facepalm level.....ITS OVER 9000!

 

Nappa-9000!? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?

 

Vegeta-PENDERS HAS MADE ANOTHER COMMENT ON SONIC!

 

But seriously? Maybe the way Penders wrote Sally was like that considering during Issues 100-160, she was more or less a emotional wreck during the time Penders and Bollers wrote for her but during SatAM and after Ian began writing for her, she was not anything like that. She never let her emotions get in her way again. Especially in Two Steps Back... where she gave herself up in order to save everyone.

 

Can anyone honestly say she would do that back between Issues 100-150 where she made a huge scene over Sonic being the only able to keep stopping Eggman? After Ian took over and especially between Issues 170-178, she grew enough to know that she can't let her emotions get the best of her anymore. This is shown the best in Two Steps Back when she gave up her free will and happiness just so Sonic,Elias and the others would survive Eggman's attack.

It even goes beyond that, if you can believe it. It wasn't enough that he wanted to kill her; he wanted her *replaced*, by her brother who was never mentioned once before his debut storyline or even hinted at, and under his pen received no memorable characterization or character traits beyond 'Brother Of Sally'. Even in an industry infamous for its less-than-stellar handling of female characters, that's a whole new level of sexism. His writing of Sally in GENERAL is just plain lousy; he makes her submissively obey her clearly-not-right-in-the-head father, never once having her call him out for the various dipshit things he did in the comic, and even nearly went along with marrying Anti-Antoine without even trying to challenge the fact she was being forced into it. 

 

He likes to talk a good game, even try to present himself as some kind of progressive, but his writing does not begin to support that notion... you can see it even in the advertisements for LSC; we have seen nothing of the title character, and yet he goes out of his way to explain the importance of a new, male character created specifically to act as an audience surrogate (so much for catering to 'young teenage girls' there), and even releases a (really badly made) turnaround of his design in the hopes of people making fan-art of the guy. 

 

I don't put on the Social Justice hat often for various reasons, but this guy is just.... astounding. 

Speaking of LSC, wasn't there also a tagline for it that mentioned that between discovering the secrets of her species past, she had to do all without a boyfriend or some crap like that? I mean seriously? One of Lara-Su's biggest problems isn't finding her missing father or figuring out her species past, It's finding a boyfriend? -sigh-

[Delta Starfire]

Was it Penders or Bollers who wrote Sally's whole ultimatum after Tossed in Space that Sonic can either give up being a hero or he can give up on their relationship? 

 

Either way, it's almost like they were trying to force it to be true that Sally was "holding Sonic back". 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I think It was Karl Bollers who wrote that issue and also introduced the whole Evil Antoine thing although If I remember right, I heard that Bollers original plan was for Antoine to turn evil and Penders made it that Antoine was switched with Patch for some reason.

 

Even then, I'm talking more in general of Issues 100-160 where Sally still wasn't written that well as you've mentioned as she keeps following the commands of her father who clearly keeps making mistake after mistake and almost never disobeying him. I mean she was even about to marry Patch just because her father told her to do it and that issue came out around 2003-2005 didn't it? So I really don't think Sally should be so weak willed towards her father that she would marry Antoine or Patch because her father told her to.

[Zaysho]

I feel it says a lot about the man when people are joining this forum (and probably others) almost exclusively to talk about how awful he is. I guess we're all just waiting for the bomb that will be the Lara-Su Chronicles to drop.

 

I'm somehow not surprised he was planning to replace Sally with Elias; I almost think his eventual end game was likely to kill off everyone except Sonic and Knuckles (and even they would've been shunted off to the side eventually, since their only purpose is to make way for characters Penders didn't know how to develop when he created him). It's honestly disturbing how little he really cared about the license he was writing for (the thing he was hired for based on the fact that he was supposedly familiar with the property then), yet infuriating that he believes he's the only one that understands it, citing behind-the-scenes knowledge apparently only he was privy to or blaming every possible outside factor for any failure he's had. And once he succeeded in his idiotic crusade, he didn't just slink back into the shadows where he belongs, no, he has to keep talking shit under the delusion that SEGA or Archie want anything to do with him or that fans want him back because they want the characters back.

 

As someone who's tried to grow past fanboy outrage in recent years... it's astounding that, even after three or four years of this shit, Penders still manages to piss me off with every new statement he makes.

 

 

I think It was Karl Bollers who wrote that issue and also introduced the whole Evil Antoine thing although If I remember right, I heard that Bollers original plan was for Antoine to turn evil and Penders made it that Antoine was switched with Patch for some reason.

Wait, what? I haven't read that particular run of issues, but Antoine getting switched with Patch wasn't the plan and it wasn't even explained in the storyline itself?

Granted, Patch taking Antoine's place does make more sense than Antoine going evil, but it's stuff like that that makes me glad the creative team got the shake-ups it did at the time. I can't imagine how all over the place that would've been if Gabrie was still editor or Bollers and Penders were able to drag it out for as long as possible.

 

 

Speaking of LSC, wasn't there also a tagline for it that mentioned that between discovering the secrets of her species past, she had to do all without a boyfriend or some crap like that? I mean seriously? One of Lara-Su's biggest problems isn't finding her missing father or figuring out her species past, It's finding a boyfriend? -sigh-

You know, in theory, I think the idea is that she'd be trying to balance having a normal life with her duties, but considering this sounds like a plot right out of a Disney Channel original movie and Penders is writing it, I have a hard time believing he could handle it without it being thoroughly obnoxious (think "The First Date" from the Knuckles series... but much, much worse). And now that you mention it... oh look, Lara-Su is reliving Knuckles's early storylines! Yay...?

[Delta Starfire]

I think It was Karl Bollers who wrote that issue and also introduced the whole Evil Antoine thing although If I remember right, I heard that Bollers original plan was for Antoine to turn evil and Penders made it that Antoine was switched with Patch for some reason.

 

Even then, I'm talking more in general of Issues 100-160 where Sally still wasn't written that well as you've mentioned as she keeps following the commands of her father who clearly keeps making mistake after mistake and almost never disobeying him. I mean she was even about to marry Patch just because her father told her to do it and that issue came out around 2003-2005 didn't it? So I really don't think Sally should be so weak willed towards her father that she would marry Antoine or Patch because her father told her to.

 

Yeah, seriously. And this all came after leading the Freedom Fighters -- and basically acting as a head of state in Knothole -- against Robotnik herself for how many years...? Just the way that she became such a wet blanket once the King was back was so infuriating. It's as if Penders/Bollers did it out of contempt for the fact that Sega had disallowed her death. But, really, gentlemen, the character is only as good as the people who write her. If she was holding Sonic back, it was because you wrote her that way. 

 

 

And once he succeeded in his idiotic crusade, he didn't just slink back into the shadows where he belongs, no, he has to keep talking shit under the delusion that SEGA or Archie want anything to do with him or that fans want him back because they want the characters back.

 

I won't lie. I do want those characters back. I want the old continuity back too. But not if it means Penders comes with either. 

[Vertekins]

Wait... he actually said that Sonic has more personality in the comics than the games?

 

Quit your day job Penders because you could be a good comedian. You'd at least be better at it than this godforsaken Lara Su Chronicles bullshit.

[Zaysho]

I won't lie. I do want those characters back. I want the old continuity back too. But not if it means Penders comes with either.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I want 'em back too. It's him that needs to stay gone.

Wait... he actually said that Sonic has more personality in the comics than the games?

 

Quit your day job Penders because you could be a good comedian. You'd at least be better at it than this godforsaken Lara Su Chronicles bullshit.

Trust me, let's not encourage the man to try to be funny...

[Mega]

...The SatAM fan in me rages over what Penders did to the characters. On the surface, he tried writing Sonic in a SatAM-esque fashion, but without the character complexities under the surface. In SatAM? Sonic has a lot more going for him than 'tude, and while he does have a thing for Sally, it's not his primary motivation. Sonic wants to save the planet. He cares deeply for all his friends, even if it's not always easy to see under his cocky demeanor. He probably has a lot of deep seated rage towards Robotnik that he hides masterfully by diving head-first into danger and behaving so recklessly with lots of cheesy one-liners. He was also very clever in season 1. Shame Season 2 had to undermine that. u_u

But from what I've read of Penders!Sonic, he's... really just a caricature of his SatAM self who's more fixated on romance and lacks his cheesy goofball traits that endear him to me so much.

As for Sally... since when is she ever submissive? In SatAM, Sally takes things into her own hands. When Sonic does something stupid? She lets him know. I'd argue that she's kinda feisty at times, even if she keeps a more level head than he does. Just... the more I hear about Penders, the more I think that a) he doesn't care to research the characters he's writing for, b ) he doesn't know how to write women, and c) he used Knuckles as a self-insert. :|