Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[dbzfan7]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I'm honestly getting to the point where I just want Shadow gone from this book; not because of anything I have against the character in the book, I actually didn't have any issue with him this issue. No, it's because I'm really fucking tired of hearing about him any time he shows up and someone has to point out literally every single fucking flaw with him. It's so draining and just makes me not want to talk about the character at this point. 

 

Other than that, yea I admit this was a whole lot of nothing but some people treating like it's worse than trash? Like, it's a filler issue, nothing too egregious about it. 

I liked what he did but the minute Chadow didn't chad all over the scene I knew it was gonna make those people pissy. He didn't even lose or anything. He was just held back. It's not like Metal just KOed him and metal tea bagged his black butt before taking off. 

If anything the issue just further shows why I hate the deadly six and why they're so lame. Just seeing cheese and everyone just beat the shit out of Zavok's lame ass was cathartic. Also seeing Princess be Princess was real nice instead of just being one in name only.

[DabigRG]

Okay, it's back. Was the forum just down for hours for anyone else or was it just me?

Okay, it's back. Was the forum just down for hours for anyone else or was it just me?

[PublicEnemy1]

56 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Okay, it's back. Was the forum just down for hours for anyone else or was it just me?

Okay, it's back. Was the forum just down for hours for anyone else or was it just me?

Umm, I'm guessing this was meant for a status update...?

[Kuzu]

Welp, my old reply got retconned to hell, and I'm too lazy to make another, so I'll keep this brief. 

I know Shadow hasn't been written well lately, but there's more going on in the book than just him. He's not going to be written like shit forever, so can we please stop pretending it's the end of the world when he's not written well. Thank you. 

[Edward850]

As was mine, so I'll give the cliff notes: A Shadow without any faults and who wins all the time would be boring, Futurama literally mocked this concept as a subplot and it's the single most annoying thing a player can do with their characters in a DnD game. He needs defeats to have his victories mean anything at all. The series and this issue is fine.

[Shadowlax]

4 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

As was mine, so I'll give the cliff notes: A Shadow without any faults and who wins all the time would be boring, he needs defeats to have his victories mean anything at all, Futurama literally mocked this concept as a subplot and it's the single most annoying thing a player can do with their characters in a DnD game. The series and this issue is fine.

The issue is all its been is failures. That comparison doesn't make sense. All its literally been is failures he has done nothing of note or nothing that mattered in this entire comic.

Not to be rude or nothing but its a section of this fanbase that likes to use shadow's popularity as a buffer for critcism and it makes discussion of this character annoying. He hasn't got anything , so until he's actually having victories or moments that matter. You can't even make that comparison. You are trying to shut down discussion.

This issue for a number of reasons outside of shadow very much isn't fine, and its totally fine if somoene doesn't like how he's been treated throughout this book. And you bluntly saying it like " law" doesn't change that. I don't care about an episode of futurama you watched. The comic I'm reading now has my favorite character doing nothing of note and it fucking sucks. And that's it

32 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Welp, my old reply got retconned to hell, and I'm too lazy to make another, so I'll keep this brief. 

I know Shadow hasn't been written well lately, but there's more going on in the book than just him. He's not going to be written like shit forever, so can we please stop pretending it's the end of the world when he's not written well. Thank you. 

You can ignore shadow discussion. I'm gonna talk about my favorite character being bad. It isn't the end of the world, but I enjoy the character and I want to talk about it and I would like for him to be better. If you have a problem. Don't respond. Not to be rude, but I don't know how else to say it. There are people in here who talk about characters I couldn't give less of a shit about. Or problems I don't even think are problems. I mind my business.

If it bothers you , Mind your business.

[Diogenes]

8 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

The issue is all its been is failures. That comparison doesn't make sense. All its literally been is failures he has done nothing of note or nothing that mattered in this entire comic.

I'd argue he's done several things that matter, just that none of them happen to involve him winning a fight or getting what he wants. Raising the question of what to do with Eggman, advancing the fight with Metal Sonic to its final stage, getting zombotted due to his ego, these are all significant matters, they're just not "wins" for him.

But he'll get his turn. He's too popular not to.

[Kuzu]

@Shadowlax The difference is that you literally don't talk about anyone or anything BUT Shadow. 

Especially when you derail a conversation to talk about him because someone else mentioned him.

Nobody is saying that you can't talk about your favorite character, but its kind of grating when he's all you ever talk about, to the point of trying to stir the conversation to talk about him.

 

There's a reason people are sick of him being constantly brought up when he generally gets a secondary role in this book for the most part.

[Edward850]

So you tell me:

18 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

You are trying to shut down discussion.

And then you immediately follow it up with telling someone else:

18 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

If you have a problem. Don't respond.

Which is the very definition of trying to shut down discussion. You aren't going to get anything meaningful out of such contradictions.

[Shadowlax]

Just now, Diogenes said:

I'd argue he's done several things that matter, just that none of them happen to involve him winning a fight or getting what he wants. Raising the question of what to do with Eggman, advancing the fight with Metal Sonic to its final stage, getting zombotted due to his ego, these are all significant matters, they're just not "wins" for him.

The question with eggman ceased to matter when the story decided that sonic wasn't going to get questioned in any real way and he was just gonna stick to his guns. And all the other characters were going to actually experience the truama. It also got invalidated because sega decided shadow was an angry weirdo who by the nature of his focus in issue 19 couldn't have really given a shit about any of the things he didn't even get to argue really in issue 6. So not only did it result in nothing and the story decided he was wrong. It was basically reconnected by the story later. And while fun the fight with metal sonic was a quick pop that resulted in nothing only making the situation worse. And he left. There was no indication that the heroes couldn't have just solved the problem with out him. The story wasn't told like that if it was, and what he did was some necessary evil to defeat the robot while a failure would have actually contributed something. But as it stands you can quite literally remove shadow from every single part of the narrative and nothing changes.

 

Just now, Diogenes said:

But he'll get his turn. He's too popular not to.

That will soley depend on Ian and Evan's ability to adapt and actually tell a different shadow the hedgehog story. Ian Flynn has a very specific way he see's these characters, it makes sense. He's a fan. However he tends to write 1 story with some of them. He writes one sonic story. He writes like 2 knuckles stories. He writes 1 silver story.  And he writes 1 shadow story . Shadow deals with thing, thing is wild strong , shadow thinks about stuff and mopes shadow comes back and bops it. That's like his shadow story. ( he wrote another shadow story once and its the best one, maybe he should try that more often ) Short but its nothing inherently wrong with it. Hits the whole narrative arc you need to.

The issue is that has been shown is that the " well shadow initially fails " bit doesn't work when the person who owns the IP just changes shit at will or you are in a unpredictable situation at the comic company you work with. Shadow I wont say more so than any other character under Ian's pen, because i'm gonna be honest I hate how Ian writes tails sometimes that's another discussion in its entirety , shadow under Ian's pen since like...the preboot has been in a constant state of setting up some big story and " the book got rebooted" or " the book got canned" or " sega is just changing shit " There was a time where the first and the last thing happened at once. And we are currently in a period in this very comic that just came out. Despite ian literally getting slapped with a " sega wants things to be like this " is going to try and tell the same story again. With the same set up again. I just have to hope that sega doesn't change anything for just long enough for him to get at least one story out that stars shadow where he does a thing and its fine. Maybe if i'm lucky he'll go super or something.
 

Or , hopefully. Evan writes a shadow story that's self contained works as a narrative in its own right stars shadow and just works. We get the whole story you get understand his value to this franchise. And that would be cool. But as we see here, gosh darnit if they don't like writing that one story. And I get it, I like that story. I like edge boy encountering some wild shit , only to come back stronger and with more resolve to save this day in his own edgy way. Its compelling. Its one of those stories that get retold all the time. Batman been telling that story for like 70 years. Its a good story. Shadowfall, shits good. Its not perfect not fond of how Ian writes rouge sometimes. But shits good.  But there comes a point where you have to realize " Oh hey these books keep getting canned and sega keeps changing shit. Maybe we should just withhold the character untill we got a whole ass story to tell, tell it and then just let him be"

So I guess my response is  " I hope so " or sega could make shadow a chef tomorrow. He makes coffee beat hotdogs. He eats them with hot sauce.

 

[Shadowlax]

33 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

@Shadowlax The difference is that you literally don't talk about anyone or anything BUT Shadow. 

I tend to talk about things as they come up. Heck before I deleted my statement on the last page most of my issues on the book were un shadow related. I'm not gonna pretend like I don't talk about the guy. I do. In great detail. I would probably talk about him less if he was fine.

You know two characters in this book I think are great. Tangle and Whisper.

You know two characters I've talked about being great Rough and Tumble.  The former I haven't had much to talk about the former has just been missing. I literally can't wait for the new bad guys book because of them and these are things i've talked about in this thread. Ya'll don't respond that shit.

Do you know how much I want to have a conversation about how Ian Flynn writes amy, or rouge or his statements on tails. I wanna talk about it a lot. I have brought it up a few times. Discussion dies out.

 

33 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

 

There's a reason people are sick of him being constantly brought up when he generally gets a secondary role in this book for the most part.

That's cool but I don't like how he is in this book so i'm gon talk about it. Whatever his role is, is irrelevant. Its bad I'm gonna talk about it. And if they in 4 years make knuckles completely brain dead and shit his pants. I will sit here and let you speak your mind. Because that's bad to you and for me, and i'm gonna respect that.

41 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

So you tell me:

And then you immediately follow it up with telling someone else:

Which is the very definition of trying to shut down discussion. You aren't going to get anything meaningful out of such contradictions.

Context is key here buddy. The statement I'm responding to from you is you flatly stating what you perceive the issue is  or lack their of.

Quote

A Shadow without any faults and who wins all the time would be boring, he needs defeats to have his victories mean anything at all, Futurama literally mocked this concept as a subplot and it's the single most annoying thing a player can do with their characters in a DnD game. The series and this issue is fine.

Avoiding the context of the gripes lodged against the version of this character to suggest the people complaining want him to just win all the time instead of...do a thing that matters. And then ending that with basically " its fine all of you need to shut up"

My response is to this

Quote

I know Shadow hasn't been written well lately, but there's more going on in the book than just him. He's not going to be written like shit forever, so can we please stop pretending it's the end of the world when he's not written well. Thank you. 

A post that is trying to dismiss criticism and trying to tell people to shut up. Now that's not cool. And is futile. Shadow's gonna get talked about and its pretty clear that the person who wrote the post just doesn't care and doesn't want to discuss shadow anymore. Which isn't inherently wrong however he's not gonna get what he wants. So I have given him the option of he can ignore me.

I do it all the time. There's shit ya'll talk about I don't care. There are whole threads on this site dedicated to things I don't care for or may not even like. I if I don't want to see discussion about it I talk about what I want to talk about and keep it pushing. Be the conversation want to see happening. You want to not talk about shadow. talk about other shit. And if people respond then respond to em. He has the freedom to do so, why exercise that trying to futility  remove that freedom from others. Talk about what you want and keep it pushin

 

[Sean]

This topic is locked and under review.

[Tornado]

1. This thread is about a children's comic book tie-in to a children's videogame series. There's no reason for the constant snippiness that happens in it. The people who this warning is more specifically targeted to, you know who you are and you should also know that you're not getting any more warnings about it; but just in general everyone chill the hell out.
2. No one is under any obligation to respond to every facet of every person's post in this thread. If a discussion is happening about a specific character in this children's comic book tie-in to a children's videogame series with a dozen characters at any given point, and you aren't interested in that discussion, feel free to not respond to it.

[Wraith]

IMPORTANT SHADOW DISCUSSION QUESTION: 



How did he end up with this sponsorship deal with Chaos Cola? Do you think he did it for the money? Is he a fan? 

From the new cover for Issue 35:

 

 

The others can be found here.

 

 

[Kuzu]

I see the artists are avid SpongeBob fans.

[PublicEnemy1]

Shadow became the very thing that he hated:

Part of a fucking brand.

[Rabid-Coot]

It all starts with this, a drink containing the ultimate flavour.

[JosepHenry]

Now to add my take on IDW Shadow....

I really get that pessimism surrounding Shadow, but also he is gonna be very important in the future, Evan even teased a Sonic and Shadow arc about them teaming up. You know... the person Shadow said that wanted to get taken by the virus (out of anger) And also we shouldn't forget that Shadow doesn't do things for himself at all, he does things for the sake the mission. He wants to kill eggman not because of himself, but he wants to make the world itself free from him.

Also let's not forget about Issue 6 and in that Shadow showed a lot of mercy, he didn't throw hands with sonic right away, he had no choice, eggman was right there, and sonic was stopping him. And he even made the excuse of eggman making sonic suffer as a reason (you know cuz maaaaaybe he cares for sonic a bit)

The infamous "cowards run, I win" issue to me makes sense as Shadow being incredibly angry, and trying to do the job on his own, because he doesn't need sonic, who in his eyes, is a total coward for not letting eggman die at that point, causing a goddamn zombie apocalipse. You know... letting his mission of protecting the world fail quiiiite a bit. 

But also he knows he is powerful, so he is all about doing things on his own cuz weaker people would just get in the way of his mission, but after screwing up a lot, he is gonna learn that he is not invincible.

He is not egotistical in the way of

"Haha i am powerful you are nothing to me"

And more like

"I am powerful so i don't need friends or help"

He is egotistical cuz he is the ultimate life form, that how he was created, the name says it all, and when he has a life mission of protecting the world, he wants no interruptions. It is not something that makes himself happy. He is NOT happy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't treat himself as a person, He had a bit of fun before, he had slight bonding with rouge, omega and even sonic, but now after eggman taking over the world, and soon after sonic of all people letting a zombie apocalipse happen in his opinion, no wonder his trust in others might be extremely damaged. Showing Shadow screwing up so much in this comic to me gives me so much hope that soon he will need help from others, and with that, he will start bonding, and then having a bit of self care treatment. (Maybe adopting cats, donating to charity, doing karaoke)

Right now in IDW he is the absolute contrast to Sonic, who might have to go through a character arc himself about morality. Maybe they will start becoming more like eachother, who knows! Sonic might question if letting eggman alive was a good idea and shadow will question if it is worthwhile to kill him.

After all, if sega wants shadow to be one note, why does he keep messing up? Why this version of Shadow is the most flawed version we ever had? Food for thought.

[SBR2]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Shadow became the very thing that he hated:

Part of a fucking brand.

I mean technically aren't all of the cast a part of a brand?

[PublicEnemy1]

9 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I mean technically aren't all of the cast a part of a brand?

I'm talking in-universe.

[Dr. Detective]

I'm so happy for Amy. She needs a vacation.

[DabigRG]

So I was trying to generate things to talk about with the recent issue before the forum turned out to be down for most of the day. In particular, I had a small rant about Shadow transcribed and at least some ideas for addressing how each character has fared ready, but the delay combined with what has inevitably gone down shows that I should probably save those two for another time.

As a point from what I wanted to say about the issue, Zor killed a guy.

2 hours ago, Wraith said:

IMPORTANT SHADOW DISCUSSION QUESTION: 



How did he end up with this sponsorship deal with Chaos Cola? Do you think he did it for the money? Is he a fan? 

From the new cover for Issue 35:

 

 

The others can be found here.

 

 

Oh, the Principal Chao is in the crowd. And Cream got a Winter outfit to match Amy's!

Zavok and Mimic, eh? Interesting combo to predict.

2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I see the artists are avid SpongeBob fans.

What makes you say that?

[Sonictrainer]

58 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

What makes you say that?

The Chao in the 8th lane is wearing a rock as a helmet and wearing the same number as Rocky from the Spongebob Squarepants Episode, "The Great Snail Race".

[CaptainRobo]

Wow, I noticed that they wearing the outfits from the Sonic Channel wallpapers.:

 

[SBR2]

3 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I'm talking in-universe.

I know I was just kidding.