Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[DabigRG]

9 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Has to be what, and why?

It has to be it's own continuity, to an extent, because otherwise, they would be really limited in what they could technically get away with. You're naturally run into situations where people would ask "Where's Sally, Sonia, Manic, Chris, etc." and where others would this "This character/location/detail wasn't in the games." Heck, for all we know, SEGA might do a game sold on the notion of being the first time, idk, Knuckles and Shadow ever teamed up for a dual adventure.

Artistic licensing/liberties, dude.

[Marco9966]

I want it to be its own continuity, but with major events of the games acknowledged.

This means that games from Sonic 1 to Shadow the Hedgehog at least, are acknowledged. And then the comics can do whatever they want! 

 

The future games do not get acknowledged in the comics! (unless Flynn does an adaptation with his own spin).

[PublicEnemy1]

3 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I want it to be its own continuity, but with major events of the games acknowledged.

This means that games from Sonic 1 to Shadow the Hedgehog at least, are acknowledged. And then the comics can do whatever they want! 

 

The future games do not get acknowledged in the comics! (unless Flynn does an adaptation with his own spin).

I do agree with that.

[BlueSky]

I dunno, pretty much everything Mr. Flynn does more than in a one-centence referation is his own spin. Giving out lists, I dunno, I had the idea the games in canon usually come up at the point were the licencing team tells them what's the canon.

And really, if they say it's going to be their own thing, putting games in line, I dunno. Maybe it's just going to start from something simple and such, not really caring for the games that much, at least not from all of those right from the start. Or what I know, nothing really.

[JosepHenry]

I would like if it was closer to the main games but with somethings changed.

Something like an improved and more detailed Shadow backstory?

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, JosepHenry said:

I would like if it was closer to the main games but with somethings changed.

Something like an improved and more detailed Shadow backstory?

But Shadow The Hedgehog game gave all the answers.

You mean you want another origin not related to Black Doom?

[JosepHenry]

6 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

But Shadow The Hedgehog game gave all the answers.

You mean you want another origin not related to Black Doom?

You know what? I wouldn't mind that AT ALL. Cuz I don't think ShadowTH answered anything from SA2 that was interesting. Why did GUN raided the ARK? Who was responsible for that? How is Gerald's diary in the ARK if he was immediately put in jail in the raid?

ShadowTH gave more questions than answers, is just a mess that adds aliens for no good reason. I would love if Ian completely changed Shadow's past to something more cohesive and understandable. Just keep ARK, Maria, Gerald and GUN. Those are essential to Shadow's past.

[NikoS]

24 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I want it to be its own continuity, but with major events of the games acknowledged.

The thing is, they were already doing that,

the post-SGW continuity had the rule that every major game (except Unleashed and Lost World) happened, if one aspect of it diverged from the game, then it was shown in the comic, as a flashback (or as a story taking place in the past e.g GoaH) or a simple mention during a dialogue. And i think it will be this way in this new comic, i don't see why not to be this way.

[Your Vest Friend]

SEGA didn't allow Archie to touch Shadow (the game)'s story, nor make any alterations to Shadow's backstory. Bear in mind that this was at the same time the Unleashed and Fighters arcs were given the greenlight, so it's not like they blanket banned any game story changes (they didn't allow changes to Heroes story either, even though they skirted around it by adding guff with Breezie flirting with Metal Sonic that was stupid in context).

[PublicEnemy1]

There's only ONE mandate that I hope gets loosened: The mandate against character development. I think that instead of OCs the only ones being developed, we should actually focus more and develop our game cast as well. Have consequences for action and such. It doesn't even have to be too drastic, I just want the book to not become stale.

[JosepHenry]

17 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

SEGA didn't allow Archie to touch Shadow (the game)'s story, nor make any alterations to Shadow's backstory. Bear in mind that this was at the same time the Unleashed and Fighters arcs were given the greenlight, so it's not like they blanket banned any game story changes (they didn't allow changes to Heroes story either, even though they skirted around it by adding guff with Breezie flirting with Metal Sonic that was stupid in context).

Of course they don't let the worst possible story (ShadowTH game story) get changed for possibly something better. That's so you SEGA.

[RedFox99]

Just now, PublicEnemy1 said:

There's only ONE mandate that I hope gets loosened: The mandate against character development. I think that instead of OCs the only ones being developed, we should actually focus more and develop our game cast as well. Have consequences for action and such. It doesn't even have to be too drastic, I just want the book to not become stale.

 

That's one of the mandates I can't say that I agree with as it could prevent the characters from being more explored. I don't even know the reasoning behind this rule.

[PublicEnemy1]

3 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

That's one of the mandates I can't say that I agree with as it could prevent the characters from being more explored. I don't even know the reasoning behind this rule.

I think it's to "keep everybody in character." Now SEGA, with Forces averting the "Sonic can't lose" rule, seems to be more willing to loosen those kinds of mandates.

[NikoS]

8 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I think it's to "keep everybody in character."

THIS, even i don't liking the restrictions the mandates imposes, i can understand where they are coming from, to exemplify:

Imagine a universe, where Big... gets tired... OF FISHING!!

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Forces didn't loosen the mandate on Sonic losing really. The stipulation was that any loss Sonic incurs can't last long (real time, not necessarily in-universe), and it really wasn't long in that game. 

[Razule]

23 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I think it's to "keep everybody in character." Now SEGA, with Forces averting the "Sonic can't lose" rule, seems to be more willing to loosen those kinds of mandates.

He can't lose permanently, i.e. there can be consequences but he still wins at the end of the story. He lost against Eggman in Forces, but of course, has nothing but wins against Eggman after he's saved. He can lose, but he has to win eventually.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

There's only ONE mandate that I hope gets loosened: The mandate against character development. I think that instead of OCs the only ones being developed, we should actually focus more and develop our game cast as well. Have consequences for action and such. It doesn't even have to be too drastic, I just want the book to not become stale.

To be fair, it's not that there was no character development among the game cast. 

After all, the reboot alone gave us things like Vector downplaying the fact that he cares for Charmy, Sonic learning to properly control the Werehog, Espio gambling away most of his money and even falling for Bean's deliberately OOC shenanigans, Eggman learning(or at lesast appropriating) the value of cameraderie, Knuckles and Shadow having to put their stubbornness behind them to cooperate, and Amy actually being legitimately nice to Knuckles.

 

 

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

 (they didn't allow changes to Heroes story either, even though they skirted around it by adding guff with Breezie flirting with Metal Sonic that was stupid in context).

Really now?

46 minutes ago, Razule said:

He can't lose permanently, i.e. there can be consequences but he still wins at the end of the story. He lost against Eggman in Forces, but of course, has nothing but wins against Eggman after he's saved. He can lose, but he has to win eventually.

Which, to be fair, is pretty much the case with most stories unless explicitly going for a cynical edge.

[Your Vest Friend]

Espio's gambling thing was an outright contradiction to his game character to be honest, not so much development. 

[DabigRG]

5 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Espio's gambling thing was an outright contradiction to his game character to be honest, not so much development. 

Eh, either way.

Unless he's explicitly supposed to be above more worldly pasttimes or something.

[PublicEnemy1]

I mainly hope that it becomes it's own thing, rather than being more game-centric, similar to Archie, who evolved from AoSTH to SatAM to it's own thing.

[Marco9966]

2 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I mainly hope that it becomes it's own thing, rather than being more game-centric, similar to Archie, who evolved from AoSTH to SatAM to it's own thing.

Yeah! That'd be great!

Archie is to SatAM what IDW will (hopefully|) be to the games!! = insane number of issues, many adventures, new ideas...

 

Archie Post-reboot was a test, but now Flynn can unleash his new stories!

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Rivals 2 pretty much laid it out. When he confronts Rouge in Neon Palace Zone Act 2, she asks if he likes games and his response is "Not really". So him having any sort of gambling problem is very unlikely based off that. And it makes sense; the games have portrayed Espio as being completely no-nonsense with his ninja conduct, with his only underscoring flaw with them being that he can be too corny about it in how serious he takes it. 

I generally find that Ian had problems grasping Espio's character in general as he came off as too infantile compared to his game counterpart (most fans have that issue with Vector, but Ian was good at balancing that), both pre and post-reboot. And honestly, I can't blame Ian 100% for that as Western writers across the board seem to have issues with writing the characters who are super serious (Omega both in Archie and Chronicles, Shadow in Boom) so it seems that there's a bit of difference in the way different countries write characters in play on top of individual writing styles. 

[NikoS]

What? Someone saying that Omega is not p e r f e c t ?

Jokes aside, i agree that Espio could have been handled better, but i really don't see the problem in Omega. (maybe i got used to his flaws to a point where it does not appear to me anymore, i don't really know)

[DabigRG]

@VEDJ-F

Ya know, quoting me would've helped in case someone posted while you were typing. Which they did.

46 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic Rivals 2 pretty much laid it out. When he confronts Rouge in Neon Palace Zone Act 2, she asks if he likes games and his response is "Not really". So him having any sort of gambling problem is very unlikely based off that.

 

Huh, I did not know that. I didn't play any PSP games and it's been a while since I watched the Sonic-a-thon, but I didn't know that.

 

I guess the reason it never bothered me is because it didn't really came across as him explicitly having any gambling problem so much as being indignant that he let himself get chumped out of what I assume was a product of boredom. Not to mention he's part of the generally quirky Chaotix and it's in line his underlying ego in Sonic X. 

 

Though I suppose one could make the case that he generally doesn't have that much to him alone outside of the ninja motif, being more serious than the other more carefree characters outside of his occasional hamminess, and his now muted lethal hatred for Eggman.

 

51 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I generally find that Ian had problems grasping Espio's character in general as he came off as too infantile compared to his game counterpart (most fans have that issue with Vector, but Ian was good at balancing that), both pre and post-reboot. And honestly, I can't blame Ian 100% for that as Western writers across the board seem to have issues with writing the characters who are super serious (Omega both in Archie and Chronicles, Shadow in Boom) so it seems that there's a bit of difference in the way different countries write characters in play on top of individual writing styles. 

Admittedly, it is a little weird looking back since I actually thought Penders had most of the Chaotix fairly close to their canon characterizations from what I've seen, with Espio arguably being the least deviated. 

Then again, he gave Espio a little more focus and story relevance than the other Chaotix, so perhaps you could argue it's also a product of that.

Though in Omega's case, I'd argue that's more a case of flanderization than much OOC behavior. I haven't seen much of Chronicles though, so feel free to offer any insight.

[KoDaiko]

I wonder if they'll give Eggman a bunch of mobian minions again. I hope they take the idea out, or cut the number to one or two. The Egg bosses as a character was unique, but I didn't like the concept. They work better as individual threatening villains, who may ally him temporarily when needed. Seriously, we need villains that are not connected to Eggman (it's not like non-Eggman villains are restricted, right.....?)

Personally I see Eggman as more robot tech minion type of guy.  He doesn't look like the guy to be patient and willing enough to keep a group of mobians, who will disobey/betray him if not threatened, in check. I mean he does occasionally force/trick mobians to do something in game but it always ends up failing or backfiring. Robots are more permanent, reliable, and flexible to his need.