Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Slashy]

Just now, Sonictrainer said:

People got to get paid.

Food, clothes, & shelter isn't going to pay for itself.

But there's no money in Sonic's world

[Sonictrainer]

6 minutes ago, Slashy said:

But there's no money in Sonic's world

Trades don't require money.

[Slashy]

Just now, Sonictrainer said:

Trades don't require money.

Good point

Why does Amy have to do it and not say Vanilla or Gemerl?

[Sega DogTagz]

4 hours ago, Slashy said:

Good point

Why does Amy have to do it and not say Vanilla or Gemerl?

Amy took it upon herself to do those things because it isn't her nature to turn away from people who need her. She couldn't turn it down particularly after the leadership vacuum Knuckles left behind at the drop of that hat. 

Vanilla is hardly leadership material and Germerl lacks empathy. He wouldn't be effective as a restoration leader either. It had to be Amy much in part due to that helpful, bright nature she possesses. This is the same girl who took it upon herself to globetrot and fight to reunite a single flicky with his family. She's determined to be helpful in any way she can. 

[Slashy]

1 hour ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Amy took it upon herself to do those things because it isn't her nature to turn away from people who need her. She couldn't turn it down particularly after the leadership vacuum Knuckles left behind at the drop of that hat. 

Vanilla is hardly leadership material and Germerl lacks empathy. He wouldn't be effective as a restoration leader either. It had to be Amy much in part due to that helpful, bright nature she possesses. This is the same girl who took it upon herself to globetrot and fight to reunite a single flicky with his family. She's determined to be helpful in any way she can. 

That doesn't explain why either of them could not take on the paperwork.

[Iko]

If this resistance/restoration thing will continue in the games as well, I don't know if it would work, but I wouldn't mind Vanilla to be rewritten into the leader of the restoration and Amy going back to her former self. Basically what Jewel did in the comic but since Jewel is not (yet at least) a game character, Vanilla is the closest character IMO.

Currently Vanilla is probably the most pointless character in the whole series, her role is just existing, and "look, Cream has a mother", so I wouldn't mind if they actually gave her an active role, even if as a background character. This would also help Cream in getting involved more in the future, being the daughter of the Restoration's leader.

I don't know, just an idea. Overall, I'm happy they did that with Jewel and that maybe Amy will finally go back to her former personality, because that new version of Amy was bland and annoying; I hope this will influence the games too.

[StaticMania]

2 hours ago, Slashy said:

That doesn't explain why either of them could not take on the paperwork.

They'd just be Amy's secretaries or attendants I guess...

The paperwork just keeps track of area damage, where forces go, and weapons doled out etc... Which is what Amy took charge of when the resistance became restoration.

They'd just be keeping tabs on that...which still requires Amy to keep track of it.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Vanilla as the Resistance leader...?

Ya know, I actually want to see that now. I still say Vector is the better choice, but a fun thought to think about nonetheless.

[Iko]

30 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Vanilla as the Resistance leader...?

Ya know, I actually want to see that now. I still say Vector is the better choice, but a fun thought to think about nonetheless.

Maybe not the Resistance, but something more like the Restoration, an organization that helps and protects people from Eggman's attacks (and rebuilds their homes when the war ends) rather than a military army that actively fights against Eggman.

I think that also Jewel would not fit as the leader of the Resistance, but the Restoration is a different thing... it depends on if they want to continue with this war-like setting or if they will just drop it by the next game.

 

EDIT: though it would have been funny if the mother of the pacifist one was the leader of a military army lol

[DabigRG]

I wonder why Rouge is at the Chao Races to begin with?

19 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

I don't really think it matters. Like IMO anyway, she wasn't doing anything in that role of note or was particularly interesting. To be excruciatingly blunt this is like an adventure book from an adventure video game series and I want to see the characters go in adventures first and foremost. While I do not mind characters being apart of teams and organizations, Amy's role felt restrictive. It felt like she was put in that role because he couldn't have vector in that role like he wanted and to by his own admission he didn't feel like knuckles fit and sega wanted him on his island anyway. He being there despite fitting somewhat felt like an afterthought and she didn't really do anything of note in that role specifically.

You got this bug girl who isn't an adventuring type owns a business knows how to handle a budget is genuinely caring ect, her leading some restoration group is totally fine. Lets amy go out and do adventures and stuff

While I do not agree with all the criticisms lodged at amy in this book ( particularly the ones saying she's just sally, that's a whole misogynistic mess that i'm not getting into right now) I do agree that role kinda felt like it was holding her back. All it did was allow her to act as an exposition spouting character for a video game so crap the comic that was supposed to follow it up abandoned it by issue 6 and has essentially pretended outside of 1 reference by eggman that it didn't exist.  And I think amy is more interesting than that.

So you got this new character sticking around, doing stuff expanding her characterization and and expanding the world. While amy goes out and explores it and goes on the adventures people come here to see.

Seems like a win win here

It's just the natural/lazy comparison to make when it comes to leadership figures in Sonic.

12 hours ago, Kaotic Kanine said:

Here's the funny thing; reason why I'm so insistent on Amy no longer being the Resistance/Restoration commander (aside from how it made her act and behave in ways that just aren't how she normally acts and behaves) is that I want a proper continuation of Amy's character after Heroes; the game which saw her become a bonafide hero who could keep up with Sonic, kick ass just as well as the rest of the main players, and even form her own adventuring team (with Cream as a dedicated sidekick for Amy to mentor over). All the while remaining as the energetic and cheerful girl with an open crush that she is supposed to be. That should've lead to many interesting things for Amy, to say the least, but of course SEGA had to turn her back into a strict support for Sonic, and are now only making her worse. Post-Reboot was going in the direction I desired, but that in itself got cut short, so naturally I was hoping IDW would continue what was left off. And suffice to say, it was something completely different that I always felt was uninteresting in comparison, but made Amy behave almost the opposite of her normal self. Like, I can't even buy the commander role as a natural conclusion for Amy's story because it would be more apt if she became more like Sonic; a powerful hero constantly wandering the world, helping people along the way, and being capable of directly saving the world. The commander role would be a more natural conclusion for (sorry for playing this comparison again) Sally, going from the leader of a small resistance group to the leader of a global heroic organization, such as the Resistance/Restoration 

I guess genuinely interesting things could've been done with Commander!Amy and it simply wasn't achieved before it got canned. But, like I said many times, the role was making Amy act more like a contrast to her character, being logic-minded and tactical/strategic rather than emotional and a risk taker not unlike Sonic, and this is after the games and Boom already portrayed Amy as much different from her original self. I'm just tired of Amy being made into different characters than her actual self, just as Superman fans are understandably beyond done with the "evil Superman" trend. And, as Shadowlax pointed out, the comic had three years to do truly interesting things with Commander!Amy but never really did so: even during a zombie apocalypse, when a commander figure would be most relevant and crucial. So, too little too late I'm afraid. Best to go back to a take on Amy that works better with her established character, has worked before, and has more "interest potential" than being a commander

Okay, this will be the last post I make about Amy in here for a good while, I swear

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Is the mere act of changing leadership positions being taken as something that's irresponsible of her? If so, I don't know how fair that is. Pigeon-holing her into this position as something she needs to do forever doesn't exactly seem right. If the comic ends up portraying it as her dumping it on Jewel and peacing out without a proper, smooth transition on the part of the two individuals, then I can see the argument against the way it was done but she said in the preview that she wasn't going to do that. 

Plus, I kind of feel like I'm one of the few here that was expecting this happen. Not just because Ian almost, basically straight up said he was planning to do something like this in one of his Bumblekasts way back when we were in the middle of the Zombot Arc, but also because I kind of just assumed that the natural conclusion to the super-stressed out Amy stuff was going to be this. You know, when Cream walks in and says "Break time Ms. Amy" and Amy's response is, "Yes please. How long do I get? Five minutes? Weeks? Years?!" it kind of tells me that she's not in a position she particularly enjoys being in. So I do take issue with the hypothesis that it was done for the sake of being reactionary to the complaints. 

Like, when asked who he'd have made the leader in Forces, the person he chose was Vector. The Amy thing here is going off of how the actual portrayal played out in Forces where Knuckles (supposedly) lead but Amy kept chiming in as the actual voice of reason for most of it. Now with this, it seems the last dregs of what was there is finally being fazed out, which I'm also for. 

I will say that whether she was good at it, is up to us though. Ian says she isn't but I dunno, it seemed like she did about as well as you could have expected her to given the circumstances. 

When it comes to Amy in particular, I've liked her portrayal in the book. I don't see her being stressed about the position as her having lost her bubbly traits but rather her suppressing them for the sake of what she has to do. At the very least, she never felt like Sally to me. I do still find Amy as she is here to be more approachable than I did her. 

 

[DabigRG]

11 hours ago, shdowhunt60 said:

I feel like the thing with IDW!Amy is that it really does feel like Ian is trying to reconcile her role in Forces, and quite hasn't gotten to that point yet. 

When I think of a logical extension of her portrayal in the Adventure games into the early 2000's... I don't know, I kinda lean towards how she was in Post-Reboot Archie. Amy's at her best when she provides emotional support to people who need it. She has leadership qualities, but I think it's one thing to position her as a leader of a team versus being a leader of a global resistance network.

But there's a ton of issues that I have when it comes to "The Resistance", as portrayed by Sonic Forces. It's a different discussion, but it does kind of scream "This sounded like a cool idea, but wasn't thought about beyond a surface level".

Effectively.

11 hours ago, Slashy said:

Why should Amy suppress those traits when people need that from her?

To give an open answer, because that's what you do when you take on responsibility: you out your inclinations aside in favor of doing what has to be done.

Now why she didn't try to raise their spirits much, I don't know. Maybe she just really wasn't able to speak to the people she's helping very often.

11 hours ago, Slashy said:

We never see anyone help her for one. We never see her bubly at the start aside from brief flirting with Sonic and some tender moments that have to be brought out by Cream.

We did see Lanolin helping her out at different points, even once they got to Angel Island.

11 hours ago, Slashy said:

1. Suppressing her bubbly nature doesn't get the work done any faster. You can be bubbly and do paperwork.

2. Why is there paperwork? The resistance/restoration isn't a government organization, why is there so much bureaucracy?

 

11 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

People got to get paid.

Food, clothes, & shelter isn't going to pay for itself.

Eh, I always saw it as one of those Cleanup after Katrina organizations.

Still, paperwork is important for organization and keeping tracks what goes where and when; a necessary formality.

 

10 hours ago, Slashy said:

Good point

Why does Amy have to do it and not say Vanilla or Gemerl?

Because they live(and we're trying to just survive) out in a little cottage on the prairieforest and she was the already heavily present not to mention important character.

2 hours ago, Iko said:

If this resistance/restoration thing will continue in the games as well, I don't know if it would work, but I wouldn't mind Vanilla to be rewritten into the leader of the restoration and Amy going back to her former self. Basically what Jewel did in the comic but since Jewel is not (yet at least) a game character, Vanilla is the closest character IMO.

I suppose I wouldn't mind Jewel since she doesn't really overlap with anything off the top of my head, but she should just stay in IDW too.

2 hours ago, Iko said:

Currently Vanilla is probably the most pointless character in the whole series, her role is just existing, and "look, Cream has a mother", so I wouldn't mind if they actually gave her an active role, even if as a background character. This would also help Cream in getting involved more in the future, being the daughter of the Restoration's leader.

 

I guess a little girl having a loving home to return to I'd pointless.

But yes, Vanilla heading an organization like this would be cool.

1 hour ago, Iko said:

 

EDIT: though it would have been funny if the mother of the pacifist one was the leader of a military army lol

Hey, that mindset(does it really apply to her btw) with her gentile mannerisms and somewhat upperclass lifestyle have gotta come from somewhere. 

 

[thumbs13]

Honestly, the Amy thing feels like they just wanna get rid of the last scrap of Forces content in the book and move on. Like, they had Knuckles take his ball and go home in issue 10, but felt disbanding everything would be too quick, so Amy had to take charge until they felt the time was right.

[Fire-N-Space]

I don't see why Amy tried so hard to keep the resistance open just to organize construction and not follow Sonic when she had the opportunity people can rebuild on their own.

[Sonictrainer]

The way this is going, it almost sounds like we need to create a new OC to overlook this animal equivalent of G.U.N. so that the main characters can do other stuff.

[Slashy]

Why not just disband it?

[Sonictrainer]

4 minutes ago, Slashy said:

Why not just disband it?

They did.

Then they regrouped and created a new organization.

 

Kind of like what happens to Team Rocket between the events of Red/Blue/Yellow to Gold/Silver Crystal.

[Slashy]

1 minute ago, Sonictrainer said:

They did.

Then they regrouped and created a new organization.

 

Kind of like what happens to Team Rocket between the events of Red/Blue/Yellow to Gold/Silver Crystal.

Just get rid of the resistance/restoration entirely.

[Sonictrainer]

Just now, Slashy said:

Just get rid of the resistance/restoration entirely.

How do you ban charity organizations?

[Slashy]

3 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

How do you ban charity organizations?

I mean I would be okay if they disbanded thinking that Sonic and friends will take care of Eggman if he arises again.

[knuckles20]

1 hour ago, Slashy said:

Just get rid of the resistance/restoration entirely.

Given the Eggman takeover in Forces and the Zombot invasion things aren’t going to spring back overnight like it never happened.

Also as much as I don’t like Forces one thing I’ll give it credit for is showing that people can’t just sit on their asses and watch Sonic deal with Eggman because the moment he falls their world is screwed. So there should be some kind of milItary force to stick around because again their world shouldn’t be overly reliant on one person to protect them from Eggman, The Deadly Six or whoever else decides they want their shot at world domination.

[KoDaiko]

4 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

The way this is going, it almost sounds like we need to create a new OC to overlook this animal equivalent of G.U.N. so that the main characters can do other stuff.

2 hours ago, knuckles20 said:

Given the Eggman takeover in Forces and the Zombot invasion things aren’t going to spring back overnight like it never happened.

Also as much as I don’t like Forces one thing I’ll give it credit for is showing that people can’t just sit on their asses and watch Sonic deal with Eggman because the moment he falls their world is screwed. So there should be some kind of milItary force to stick around because again their world shouldn’t be overly reliant on one person to protect them from Eggman, The Deadly Six or whoever else decides they want their shot at world domination.

A few (new original) characters deciding to maintain the resistance team to watch out for Eggman and maybe Sonic & co. doesn't sound like a bad idea. Brings opportunity for future plot/conflict & more worldbuilding.

I wonder if this is what the IDW team had in mind when discussing how to bring the Freedom Fighters back?

[DabigRG]

4 hours ago, Slashy said:

Why not just disband it?

 

4 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

They did.

Then they regrouped and created a new organization.

 

Kind of like what happens to Team Rocket between the events of Red/Blue/Yellow to Gold/Silver Crystal.

 

4 hours ago, Slashy said:

Just get rid of the resistance/restoration entirely.

 

3 hours ago, Slashy said:

I mean I would be okay if they disbanded thinking that Sonic and friends will take care of Eggman if he arises again.

They still need to fix parts of the world, dude. Especially after the Zeti got involved.

[StaticMania]

The world should just go back to normal after the threats over, it's not like Sonic sticks around to help with cleanup...

[Diogenes]

4 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

They still need to fix parts of the world, dude. Especially after the Zeti got involved.

Do they, though? Like, is this something a loose association of superpowered teens should be handling? The Resistance was one thing, when you're backed into a corner you use what you've got, and "people who have experience fighting the bad guy" is kind of what they'd want. But with the Restoration it almost feels like the characters we know are the only real people so they've gotta run the whole world.

[Wraith]

10 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Do they, though? Like, is this something a loose association of superpowered teens should be handling? The Resistance was one thing, when you're backed into a corner you use what you've got, and "people who have experience fighting the bad guy" is kind of what they'd want. But with the Restoration it almost feels like the characters we know are the only real people so they've gotta run the whole world.

well gun is on the other planet so as far as we know sonic and friends are still 'what they've got' for now. 

i guess since jewel is taking over the restoration it can spin off more organically into being its own thing.