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

[Promethean0416]

6 hours ago, horridus said:

Why offer something of substance like a release date when you can wow the world with the merchandise you're thinking about for the product you haven't come out with in over a decade? Clearly we just can't appreciate the genius of Penders' strategy!

... the whole thing reminds me of Foodfight, that awful movie about cereal mascots. Apparently the makers behind it had big plans for it, expecting to generate an entire franchise of spinoff materials, to the point where it was clear they were thinking more about the franchise that hadn't gotten off the ground than they did about the movie meant to spawn it.

Heh. Now that's an interesting complication... now technically, cities can indeed have very similar names, to the point of confusion. But this being a work of fiction, you think there'd be a bit of care to make major locations in the setting distinct enough that nobody would confuse them.

Kinda surprised he didn't specify that Albion was the original Echidna homeland, but then maybe that detail has changed arbitrarily as well. Either way I'm just gonna giggle at this new development.

Yeah, I remember that one. Definitely up there with the uncanny valley brigade, and makes me wonder now if Penders will try and shoehorn advertisements of his own in that series, starting with either his "TV series" or his "movie".

Also, "one cannot grasp the true form of Penders' strategy!"

Anyway, an idea of what to expect in his "not-kid-friendly-13-and-up-mature-audience project":

Don't know if this is an attempt to emulate Quentin Tarantino, but I can't help but feel uneasy about this...

Also:

*coughNiemöllerpoemcough* Wonder what term he will "come up with" next?

And seems he is having trouble with deciding on a part of his story:

Opening up his options for a "Director's Cut"?

[horridus]

40 minutes ago, Promethean0416 said:

Yeah, I remember that one. Definitely up there with the uncanny valley brigade, and makes me wonder now if Penders will try and shoehorn advertisements of his own in that series, starting with either his "TV series" or his "movie".

Also, "one cannot grasp the true form of Penders' strategy!"

Anyway, an idea of what to expect in his "not-kid-friendly-13-and-up-mature-audience project":

Don't know if this is an attempt to emulate Quentin Tarantino, but I can't help but feel uneasy about this...

Given that Penders couldn't even be assed to depict the Echidna colonization of Cat Country as worthy of scorn, I sincerely doubt he's going to have anything meaningful to say on the subject. And given what he's said about the story so far, if he DOES broach this subject you can bet its going to be out of nowhere, barely relevant to the larger story, and then going unmentioned the rest of the way. This man absolutely does not have the insight or skill to discuss mature subjects with maturity.

40 minutes ago, Promethean0416 said:

Also:

*coughNiemöllerpoemcough* Wonder what term he will "come up with" next?

No idea. But doubtless it will either be derivative, offensive, or very likely both.

40 minutes ago, Promethean0416 said:

And seems he is having trouble with deciding on a part of his story:

Opening up his options for a "Director's Cut"?

I've said this several times already, but if he's really at the point where he's still deciding stuff, then there's really no hope for this project or him. What else does he need to decide on after a decade?

[Promethean0416]

And now we have the prototype Cyberdark badge:

Despite the somewhat generic design, I will give him a bit of credit for not making it too much like the Yu-Gi-Oh card archetype aside from the name...

[horridus]

3 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

And now we have the prototype Cyberdark badge:

Despite the somewhat generic design, I will give him a bit of credit for not making it too much like the Yu-Gi-Oh card archetype aside from the name...

Some part of me wants him to finish this, just to see if he'd get blindsided by receiving a cease and desist order from Konami. Given how often he's howled about the sanctity of his own Intellectual Property it'd be fitting, especially given that it was something that could be avoided by just searching in google to make sure no one else was using 'Cyberdark'.

[Promethean0416]

And now we have a topographic map of Avion, which someone commented on looked like something from Fortnite:

To me, looks like an amalgamation of copy/paste land pieces (especially that moon-like surface on the water on the eastern side) to form his "Floating Island" and has me wondering if it has the grasslands, desert, forest, jungle, ice world, fire world, and boss thing going here...

Anyway, from his tweet, is he comparing his setting to the Black Panther movie with the invisible city and all?

 

Also, updated patch design with a lighter purple and extra word put in:

Guess we'll see if Konami takes notice...

[The Tenth Doctor]

"The Waterfall is where an epic scene occurs". We all know the scene Ken and a teenage girl making a childish bet with her inheritance ain't epic dude.

[Promethean0416]

12 minutes ago, The Tenth Doctor said:

"The Waterfall is where an epic scene occurs". We all know the scene Ken and a teenage girl making a childish bet with her inheritance ain't epic dude.

Yeah, though I dunno, maybe Rutan threw some jewels down the waterfall and Lara-Su has to collect them all within a time limit for a prize?

[horridus]

2 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

And now we have a topographic map of Avion, which someone commented on looked like something from Fortnite:

To me, looks like an amalgamation of copy/paste land pieces (especially that moon-like surface on the water on the eastern side) to form his "Floating Island" and has me wondering if it has the grasslands, desert, forest, jungle, ice world, fire world, and boss thing going here...

Anyway, from his tweet, is he comparing his setting to the Black Panther movie with the invisible city and all?

Also, updated patch design with a lighter purple and extra word put in:

Good lord, that just looks plain old silly. It's exactly as you say- a bunch of copy pasted photographs of landmasses sewn together to make "Avion". And yeah, given how Penders is? You can bet that that thing has several clashing biomes existing side-by-side, most likely clumped together in the same manner as this map he made for the Knuckles series back in the day-

And nah, he's not making a Wakanda comaparison. He's basically suggesting that the infrastructure of the Echyd'nya is built directly into the landscape itself and hidden from sight... like if you somehow built a city within a mountain and then somehow did that without radically altering the outside of the mountain. He's big on this idea that the Echyd'nya live in harmony with their environment, while being utterly oblivious to how his suggested way they achieve this would be incredibly harmful to said environment.

"Hard Science Fiction", my ass.

2 hours ago, The Tenth Doctor said:

"The Waterfall is where an epic scene occurs". We all know the scene Ken and a teenage girl making a childish bet with her inheritance ain't epic dude.

This is a weird recurring thing with Penders... he absolutely does not seem to comprehend that while HE might like what he's done, final judgement about the quality of what he's made must come from his readers rather than him. He can be excited about what he's made, for sure, but at the end of the day its not his call to make... or it wouldn't be if this was ever coming out.

[Promethean0416]

It has been a while, but didn't he say at some point that the "Ian timeline" happened at some point, especially concerning a green hedgehog? Maybe I am missing something or imagining this...

Also, more on the Fortnite comparison:

 

 

 

I admit I have not played Fortnite in a while, but I am sure they weren't that disorganized or copy/paste heavy...

 

 

[PinkFloydMania]

I'm not defending whatever that thing is that he Photoshopped together to make Legally Distinct Angel Island "Avion", but Angel Island's biomes were far from geographically accurate in S3K before Ken ever got his hands on it. Maybe I'm missing the point?

[Promethean0416]

1 hour ago, PinkFloydMania said:

I'm not defending whatever that thing is that he Photoshopped together to make Legally Distinct Angel Island "Avion", but Angel Island's biomes were far from geographically accurate in S3K before Ken ever got his hands on it. Maybe I'm missing the point?

Yeah, as stated earlier, the biomes definitely lack some accuracy. Anyway, more on "timelines":

 

[Rabid-Coot]

2 hours ago, PinkFloydMania said:

I'm not defending whatever that thing is that he Photoshopped together to make Legally Distinct Angel Island "Avion", but Angel Island's biomes were far from geographically accurate in S3K before Ken ever got his hands on it. Maybe I'm missing the point?

Angel Island gets away with it by being a game, unrealistic settings are excusable because it gives level variety. Rebooting it as something  claimed to be more serious makes the mess more questionable.

[babsiwuff]

5 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

Yeah, as stated earlier, the biomes definitely lack some accuracy. Anyway, more on "timelines":

That’s a hell of a take.  What makes Karl’s stories more “definitive” than Ian’s?  Ian wrote the 30 years later arc, didn’t he?  It sure made a lot more sense than Ken’s stupid housewife stories.

[horridus]

8 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

It has been a while, but didn't he say at some point that the "Ian timeline" happened at some point, especially concerning a green hedgehog? Maybe I am missing something or imagining this...

You're not missing anything. Penders can't be bothered to keep track of this shit. He see's nothing contradictory about throwing out Flynn's stuff while wanting to exploit the popularity of things like Scourge, even though that would implicitly confirm that the Flynn stuff happened regardless.

1 hour ago, babsiwuff said:

That’s a hell of a take.  What makes Karl’s stories more “definitive” than Ian’s?  Ian wrote the 30 years later arc, didn’t he?  It sure made a lot more sense than Ken’s stupid housewife stories.

Funny how he suddenly respects the merits of Bollers work when there's something he can get out of it, given that he accused Bollers of trying to actively undermine him.

[PinkFloydMania]

13 hours ago, Rabid-Coot said:

Angel Island gets away with it by being a game, unrealistic settings are excusable because it gives level variety. Rebooting it as something  claimed to be more serious makes the mess more questionable.

Ah I see, he's trying to pass off a cartoon video game island as a super realistic hard sci fi locale. Of course he is. Now I'm on the same page as everyone else.

[Promethean0416]

Oh look, this thing's back: 

So, is he skipping the inking for this "commission" too? Inquiring minds want to know...

Edited May 9, 2023 by Promethean0416

[babsiwuff]

5 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

Oh look, this thing's back: 

So, is he skipping the inking for this "commission" too? Inquiring minds want to know...

Knuckles looks weird.  but that's par for the course at this point.

And random question, if he's planning on re-releasing the M25YL thing again, how's he going to get around Sonic CLEARLY being Sonic?  Is he going to attempt to rename him or something like he did with Knuckles and Tails?

[PinkFloydMania]

13 minutes ago, babsiwuff said:

Knuckles looks weird.  but that's par for the course at this point.

And random question, if he's planning on re-releasing the M25YL thing again, how's he going to get around Sonic CLEARLY being Sonic?  Is he going to attempt to rename him or something like he did with Knuckles and Tails?

The world isn't ready for K'wick the Hy'dge'hyg

[Promethean0416]

1 hour ago, PinkFloydMania said:

The world isn't ready for K'wick the Hy'dge'hyg

Original character do not steal (good one, by the way)...

Anyway, looks like he will be at yet another Comic-Con in July likely doing the same thing he does at every event: sell back issues + promote unreleased product = profit?

 

[Promethean0416]

More updated progress on the "commission":

I remember this got started sometime in February, if I recall correctly. Wonder what happened to delay this to this moment...

EDIT: Got the month wrong. It was February, not December.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Promethean0416
Minor change.

[Promethean0416]

Another update, but also with this interesting tidbit regarding the Sally design:

EDIT: With this, I am going to agree with horridus that this is likely not a commission, but something Penders is doing for himself as what are the chances that this mystery commissioner remembers something as obscure as Sonic Armageddon?

Edited May 13, 2023 by Promethean0416
Adding.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

7 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

Another update, but also with this interesting tidbit regarding the Sally design:

EDIT: With this, I am going to agree with horridus that this is likely not a commission, but something Penders is doing for himself as what are the chances that this mystery commissioner remembers something as obscure as Sonic Armageddon?

I mean, Penders kinda has a tendency to do his own thing on these, anyway, doesn't he?

[babsiwuff]

2 hours ago, King Scoopa Koopa said:

I mean, Penders kinda has a tendency to do his own thing on these, anyway, doesn't he?

I definitely agree it’s not a commission.  Also, I notice that he put more effort into Knuckles than he did into Sonic.  What do you want to bet that his characters will be detailed, while official non-Knuckles related ones will look rushed?

[horridus]

16 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

Another update, but also with this interesting tidbit regarding the Sally design:

EDIT: With this, I am going to agree with horridus that this is likely not a commission, but something Penders is doing for himself as what are the chances that this mystery commissioner remembers something as obscure as Sonic Armageddon?

The odds are slim but not impossible. Personally I think that if this IS in fact a legitimate commission, there's a good chance he's just using that design because the fancy struck him and he's ignoring what he was paid to do. The last person who talked about commissioning him mentioned it being the sort of thing he does.

Though that said I'm still banking on this being a personal project.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

7 hours ago, babsiwuff said:

I definitely agree it’s not a commission.  Also, I notice that he put more effort into Knuckles than he did into Sonic.  What do you want to bet that his characters will be detailed, while official non-Knuckles related ones will look rushed?

Sorry, I was referring to what Horridus mentioned -- even on commissions, he just does what he wants.