Should the Freedom Fighters come back to IDW Comics?

[Domino]

20 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I don't know where all this crapping on the reboot FF is coming from. I think they were really well updated to fit the games aesthetic.

Ehhh, I do think they went overboard with Antoine's redesign. Getting rid of his whiskers, snout shape, and eye markings just made him look like a brown Tails with a wig. It's weird that they got rid of his fancy coat, too. Especially since just a few years later we got Dr. Starline wearing his own fancy coat.

But I think the previous posters were talking more about the characterizations and backstories than the designs.

[Zaysho]

56 minutes ago, Natie said:

"The FF can be changed to fit the game world, in fact they already were in reboot archie."

This is a perfectly solid point, but am I remembering wrong or did most fans not despise the reboot FF for the express reason of them not being the way they were before?

Everywhere I went all I remember was people trashing the pre-reboot, or coming back to Archie explicitly because of those changes. Most complaints I even remember in the first year or so were from fans more upset because the Archie book (which was preparing for those redesigns anyway) had to be drastically changed and lose its current storylines because of the publisher's incompetence and even then a lot of those issues were quickly replaced with new characters people really liked.

The only people I can think of that had any real grievance with them at all were people who sided with Penders because they hated Flynn's work anyway and scapegoated him for problems Penders created.

[antyep]

16 hours ago, Zaysho said:

The only people I can think of that had any real grievance with them at all were people who sided with Penders because they hated Flynn's work anyway and scapegoated him for problems Penders created.

Well there you go. Are we really gonna worry about them? They pretty much hate Flynn for everything he does, especially with the FFs like with Sally being bi for example. I'm not fond of that, but... Penders did worse to her and the FFs.

Frankly, since Sega got rid of humans (sans Eggman), maybe Sally has her own version of GUN or something, those who owned that prison that kept the villains. I do like the idea of her and her team having a rivalry with Sonic and his friends; the whole careful planning vs winging it thing. Also, Rotor can still be an inventor, but Sally and her organization's. Who says he has to be Sonic's? That's Tails' role, anyways. Antoine...yeah, I agree with Domino. Why the hell they designed so generic-looking when Starline had a coat of his own? It seems to hypocritical. And as for Bunnie, as Ryan said, they had robotization in Lost World, though it seems based on Badnik-processing (trapping animals in robots/robotic armor), but hell, Fleetway did that. In fact, the character, Shortfuse, was trapped in one that was made of a nearly indestructible alloy, Megatal. So Bunnie can be in the same bolt; her legs and arm stuck in indestructible robot armor. And I don't see what the problem is with a advanced AI in the franchise, like Nicole.

Yeah, there maybe people who'll complain that the FFs are not like how they originally were, but...pfft, same can be said about most of the cast here, like Amy, Tails, and Shadow. You can't please everyone.

[Red Hot Jack]

To be honest... I have an "hot take" now.

There is a discussion about Freedom Fighters EVERYWHERE, in the IDW thread, in the Archie thread, on twitter, now there are even more threads. We get bombarded by Freedom Fighters discussions.

And this is in a time during their absence. It feels like they are already a looming shadow in IDW. I can't even imagine what would happen if the Freedom Fighters actually made an appearance in IDW, people would talk about that only all the time and ignore the rest of the comic.

Wait... aren't they already ignoring the rest of the comic? There are new stories, new characters, to talk about and people are still obsessed with the absence of Freedom Fighters. 

I don't even mind them but at this point I'm sick of people asking for them, it's not anyone's fault but I'm kinda starting to hate them just because people can't seem to talk about anything else.

Sorry for the rant.

[Natie]

42 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

Everywhere I went all I remember was people trashing the pre-reboot, or coming back to Archie explicitly because of those changes. Most complaints I even remember in the first year or so were from fans more upset because the Archie book (which was preparing for those redesigns anyway) had to be drastically changed and lose its current storylines because of the publisher's incompetence and even then a lot of those issues were quickly replaced with new characters people really liked.

The only people I can think of that had any real grievance with them at all were people who sided with Penders because they hated Flynn's work anyway and scapegoated him for problems Penders created.

Guess it comes down to personal experience then lol cuz I had seen a lot of backlash so I assumed it to be the popular opinion

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 hour ago, Jack-ted said:

To be honest... I have an "hot take" now.

There is a discussion about Freedom Fighters EVERYWHERE, in the IDW thread, in the Archie thread, on twitter, now there are even more threads. We get bombarded by Freedom Fighters discussions.

And this is in a time during their absence. It feels like they are already a looming shadow in IDW. I can't even imagine what would happen if the Freedom Fighters actually made an appearance in IDW, people would talk about that only all the time and ignore the rest of the comic.

Wait... aren't they already ignoring the rest of the comic? There are new stories, new characters, to talk about and people are still obsessed with the absence of Freedom Fighters. 

I don't even mind them but at this point I'm sick of people asking for them, it's not anyone's fault but I'm kinda starting to hate them just because people can't seem to talk about anything else.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm actually okay with the Freedom Fighters, but I can understand how it's annoying that many people still want them back, despite the fact that the IDW comic have some good stories of their own.  I wouldn't want the Freedom Fighters to override the IDW comics, if they come back at all.  I want people to enjoy the stories that the IDW comic is offering them at the moment, even if it's not perfect.

[Zaysho]

6 hours ago, Natie said:

Guess it comes down to personal experience then lol cuz I had seen a lot of backlash so I assumed it to be the popular opinion

Admittedly that could be the case. I was pretty used to seeing circles I followed really only bash the pre-reboot stuff (which was a little awkward because I legitimately liked it lol). I will grant I have seen plenty of generalized complaints about the reboot but a lot of it either had to do with problems Ian's writing has or just not liking it anyway because even after the reboot the book wasn't what they were looking for. But the reception I was used to seeing was mostly pretty positive and many people who followed the book for a long time accepting it because of the circumstances or because the reboot was a refresher that made Archie way less intimidating to follow.

6 hours ago, Jack-ted said:

To be honest... I have an "hot take" now.

There is a discussion about Freedom Fighters EVERYWHERE, in the IDW thread, in the Archie thread, on twitter, now there are even more threads. We get bombarded by Freedom Fighters discussions.

And this is in a time during their absence. It feels like they are already a looming shadow in IDW. I can't even imagine what would happen if the Freedom Fighters actually made an appearance in IDW, people would talk about that only all the time and ignore the rest of the comic.

Wait... aren't they already ignoring the rest of the comic? There are new stories, new characters, to talk about and people are still obsessed with the absence of Freedom Fighters. 

I don't even mind them but at this point I'm sick of people asking for them, it's not anyone's fault but I'm kinda starting to hate them just because people can't seem to talk about anything else.

Sorry for the rant.

lol

I read the IDW thread at least once a week and I know for a fact that this is not true. And the threads are nowhere near as frequent as you want to pretend they are just from skimming the last four or five pages of this sub-forum.

The IDW thread alone spends more time discussing how terrible Shadow is or complaining that solicitation dates were wrong by a week or two as if it's on the same level as when Archie lied to people to hold onto subscription money. People talk about the books when they come out and often go back to earlier stuff to talk about the book's direction. I don't even remember the last time the FF came up besides you bringing them up for absolutely no reason because you were mad about there being a separate topic about people wanting Sally in a stupid mobile game. Maybe that's the problem, huh?

If you're bitter about legacy characters getting dedicated threads discussing their potential, or being discussed at all, maybe think about why people are asking about this. Sega canned the book with no warning and told everyone that read Archie to kick rocks or get on board with them. Or, I dunno, go make a thread about your own character you want to see or try actually talking about the IDW book.

[Domino]

The thing (and it's a big thing) about the Freedom Fighters is that their original purpose was to give Sonic a supporting cast to work with. Back in 1993, Sonic didn't have a ton of friends yet, so the SatAM showrunners had to fill in the gaps. But now, of course, Sonic already has an official supporting cast, and a significant one, too. If they reintroduce all the Freedom Fighters in the IDW series, they'll have to either repurpose them in a different way or risk bloating the already large recurring cast.

If the Freedom Fighters return somehow, their place in the story and relation to sonic will no doubt be different. The question is "how?"

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

4 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I agree that even if the Freedom Fighters do make it into the IDW series, their characterizations might be drastically changed to fit in with the new universe.  Sure, they can still be Freedom Fighters, but even if they had some kind of relationship with Sonic and his friends like Tangle and Whisper do in the IDW comics, I have a feeling that their personalities might be different to fit in with the new continuity.

Their personalities aren’t what needs to be changed any more than Sonic’s personality in Boom or the Movies separate from the games or how he is in the comics. That’s the core that’ll likely remain in a fashion we’ll recognize them as—it the circumstances surrounding them and the reactions they have are what’ll be different.

That along with their appearances, their background, and hell they might not even be called the Freedom Fighters anymore. But they’ll still be characters we can recognize in a new world, just like the first time they got rebooted.

[Multikaris]

7 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

As I said though, it's all down to what SEGA decides, and there's been plenty of evidence before that SEGA just decides to do stuff randomly. Again, it was infamous how both Bollers and Ian wanted to use Omega in Archie Sonic, as well as Cream and Eggman Nega for ages, and it took right up until 2010 or so before Ian could make any leeway in that.

Once again - for characters introduced in 2002/2003 - it took Flynn seven years to finally get permission to have them appear in the comics, and Nega's absence lasted even longer than that.

SEGA do stuff for strange reasons, and Ian keeps the door open for the FF for the simple fact of SEGA haven't given him a definitive no, like for other characters he's tried to use before (IE - The Hooligans, since they're now Classic Only). There's no arbitrary ruleset that says who can or cannot appear, other than characters trapped in straight up rights hell (IE - OVA characters), and SEGA can easily flip the switch again, which is seemingly why Ian keeps pushing.

As for the TMNT example, Laird was infamous in general for not allowing spin-off stuff, with him straight up telling the director of the 2007 movie that there was to be zero mention of Venus. That's presumably why. When Laird sold his rights to Nickelodeon, everything was fair game again. They always had the rights to use the characters, Laird just didn't want to. 

Given the OVA rights hell, the Sonic Twitter did use Old Man Owl a while back, indicating the rights issues are being solved. And on the other hand, a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles elements stayed with their creators or other companies, one example being “The River”, which is owned by Rick Veitch.

[Mobotropolis]

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Why is removing them from the equation considered over improving them then?

Because that's what happened. That's why I gave that particular example. 

Ultimately, Rotor and Tails could not both be on the team so they thought up a reason to retire Rotor. Ian also admitted that the original plan was to kill off Antoine in Unthinkable, but he didn't because fans were already pissed over the one (her getting BLAM BLAM BLAM'D) two punch (then getting robotized) that happened with Sally. That entire arc was a conga line of tragedy for the Freedom Fighters that put a bad taste in their fan's mouths; being put on a bus one after another so Sonic could go have adventures with his SegaSonic Friends. 

... then stuff like that happened in the post-Reboot, too, though not to that extreme. Remember Champions; the Sonic the Fighters/Generic Tournament Arc? Was a convivence that none of the Freedom Fighters qualified? Nonsense. 

Any character who's going to have to compete for spotlight against a SegaSonic Character is going to lose that battle.

It doesn't matter how beloved or historied they are. 

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Says who?

Says SEGA. 

They're the ones who decide who's on and off limits for the writers to use. 

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And this is in a time during their absence. It feels like they are already a looming shadow in IDW.

The Post-Reboot felt like a lot of that. 

There was a lot of debate over Old VS New when it came to the characters and their role in the story. Nigel VS Max. Breezie VS Mogul. Relic VS Julie-Su. Bow and Rob. Gmerl and Shard. What they did to Muttiski Snively. Few of the new or even returning characters were judged based on their own merit, but their merit relative to who or what they were in the old continuity. 

There seems to be less of that going on with IDW Sonic in comparison. Feel like part of that is turning this more into a globe trotting adventure than setting Sonic's roots so firmly down in a single location. The other part? Introducing New Characters that are nothing like the old ones. I've seen enough of Tangle, Whisper, Starline and Friends to see them as their own characters. 

If the Freedom Fighters come back, I'd even go as far to say they shouldn't even be called The Freedom Fighters anymore. They'd have to rework those character's to work with the current format of the book, not the other way around, to the point that they'd resemble to old characters in name only. 

And if you're going that far, why bother? 

As I said in the first post, I think we have enough heroic characters. There's like 20 recurring now. That's enough. 

I'd rather they spend their time and creative energy developing some more villains and/or antiheroes for them to fight. 

[GentlemanX]

What I consider the most reasonable argument against the Freedom Fighters coming over to IDW is the fact that they can't function as Sonic's primary supporting cast like they were in SatAM and Archie. I say that's the most reasonable argument to me because there's really no refuting it: the Freedom Fighters, with Sonic in the lead and the rest as back up focused on tactical missions to stop the Eggman Empire, should not be the direction IDW goes in. IDW is a more SegaSonic-centric book than Archie ever was. It takes the setup of the games and tells new stories that are, theoretically anyway, more in line with what you might find there. Sonic is the protagonist, we focus on him running around doing the hero thing, and he runs into his various friends while on said adventures. That's how SegaSonic works, and therefore that's how IDWSonic works. ArchieSonic and SatAMSonic did not work that way and expecting the new book to go back to that isn't reasonable, or honestly preferable given IDWSonic's premise. So those saying that the Freedom Fighters, as they were in SatAM and Archie, wouldn't work in IDW makes sense.

But.

Being Sonic's primary supporting cast, even the Freedom Fighters team in concept, is not required for these characters to work. Sally can rally against injustice and act strategically without being around Sonic all the time or leading a team focused on beating Eggman. Bunnie can be a high energy, down to earth brawler with a lot of empathy and tech appendages without being in Sonic's periphery and needing Sally around to tell her what she needs to smash. Antoine can be a bit of a stuffed shirt who has a tendency to prattle on and need a bit of convincing to jump into the thick of things without always doting on Sally or Bunnie or being the nag in Sonic's life. Rotor can be a specialist in equipment for himself and others who wants to show what he's capable of without being the guy Sonic prefers to chill with and always inventing new weapons to use against the Eggman Empire. And Nicole can be Sally's trusted aide who's slowly learning to act beyond her programming without having to provide a strike force with the technical specs needed for continuous militaristic operations. The characters they were in SatAM and Archie were big enough to function beyond the role assigned to them in those narrative concepts. Each has their own unique personality that allows for a breadth of potential story and character opportunities in any canon they could be dropped into. A degree of adaptation is needed, sure, but there's more than enough there to make them creatively viable. It's not like we're talking about one shot characters or those only involved in one, specific story arc. They can be retooled to fit the new environment they're surrounded by while remaining largely recognizable with how they've been portrayed in the past.

If you just don't like the Freedom Fighters, fine. No one can force you to like something you don't. But plenty of people will also feel the opposite and there isn't a reason they shouldn't show up from a purely character standpoint. I can kinda understand the "we already have a ton of characters" angle, but if you think the book is going to stop introducing new, heroic characters I've got bad news because that's not going to happen. Belle was literally introduced five issues ago. New characters are going to show up to keep things fresh and the cast will continue to increase. In the games this can be frustrating because it's hard to give all these characters adequate screen time that'll please their fans. But in the comics? It's much easier to shuffle your characters give every reader a chance to see their favorites at one point or another. Whether that's new characters or legacy ones.

But as has been said already, those currently writing the book would add the characters if they could, it all comes down to Sega saying yes or no. But for the question of whether they "should" be in the book; I think they should. I'd like to see new versions of them interacting in a more SegaSonic grounded book.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

4 hours ago, Mobotropolis said:

Because that's what happened. That's why I gave that particular example. 

One example out of an entire scope of issues where he later comes back as part of another team. Then comes back in the reboot back to his role as a mechanic.

If anything, that proves more that characters can be improved or reworked instead of being removed from the equation considering he still specializes in other roles that Tails doesn’t.

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... then stuff like that happened in the post-Reboot, too, though not to that extreme. Remember Champions; the Sonic the Fighters/Generic Tournament Arc? Was a convivence that none of the Freedom Fighters qualified? Nonsense. 

Considering it was an adaptation of a video game, yes?
 

Otherwise, I supposed it wasn’t a convenience they came back in the other issues if that’s the case, then. Remember Control, Ambushed, Ray of Hope, etc.? What about Worlds Unite (and don’t even waste your breath ranting about it—it’s one of my most hated arcs Ian’s ever written)? Was it a convivence they were present in these preceding and successive issues?

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Any character who's going to have to compete for spotlight against a SegaSonic Character is going to lose that battle.

And yet the Freedom Fighters were the ones occupying the main book as the core characters even during the reboot while most of the SegaSonic characters took the side stories.

And that’s before getting into the question of why is this being treated as a competition when that’s not how storytelling should work. While I certainly know they won’t be the core characters this time around if they got in IDW, they’ll certainly have it balanced to where they’re not in a competition since they weren’t competing in the first place the first time around.

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Says SEGA. 

They're the ones who decide who's on and off limits for the writers to use. 

Who are well known to change their mind at the drop when you least expect it. Even they know there’s demand for them them, so this limbo of uncertainty doesn’t guarantee any straight answers over when, where, or if they would show up.

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If the Freedom Fighters come back, I'd even go as far to say they shouldn't even be called The Freedom Fighters anymore. They'd have to rework those character's to work with the current format of the book, not the other way around, to the point that they'd resemble to old characters in name only. 

And if you're going that far, why bother? 

The same reason people want to see characters like Shadow, Blaze, or Classic Sonic? You say that like extremes are an automatic given with a rework—never mind the fact that they were already different from the first time they were rebooted anyway. Like, why are we ignoring this fact?

[E-122-Psi]

I think a main problem with the Freedom Fighters is that, due to originating from story driven non-game media, they are characters tied far more closely to their original lore and backstory than the SEGA cast are. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles do have changes from depiction to depiction, but largely are designed to work more around their base personalities and abilities. The Freedom Fighters on the other hand have WAY more subtle personalities and physical abilities with a lot of their conflicts and character appeal coming from the SatAm/Archie backstory inserting sympathy and agency into them. We don't see a lot of isolated character driven stories like Adventure, Boom or Heroes where their personalities just drive what they do, they always have a mission plan or are being driven by the consequences of Eggman's long term oppression. You couldn't make that work without altering the Sonic universe around them in some way, which I think was already the key factor to some spotlight stealers in the past being divisive (eg. Shadow increasingly turning Sonic's world into a dark and gritty city with corrupt governments to tie into his own lore).

I always feel like Ian's later attempts at the Freedom Fighters were trying to adjust them to SEGA style rules but, not QUITE getting a grip of it. If you take out their backstories and mission plans they're mostly just straight men to the bombastic SEGA cast, which isn't that distinct and fun on its own. You saw attempts at more colourful personalities here and there, like giving them signature abilities of some sort, trying to make them more flawed, or having arguments that weren't 99.9% started by Sonic, but they always felt amorphous and undercooked, like they just weren't used to having them work without their old lore. I mean Bunnie isn't as bad as Shortfuse in terms of resting on her tragic backstory but it is a HUGE part of her sympathetic character that they like to routinely remind you of, even in the reboot, outside that she's mostly just Antoine's wife and a cowgirl accent. Some of their new abilities were similar. I don't know what close combat laser blades say about Sally's merticulous character, compared to say, Knuckles' close combat brute force which matches his tough guy persona. The personality always felt like a peppering the writers weren't 100% on for the Freedom Fighters, the lore was what made them run.

With the same team working on IDW that worked on later Archie I don't think there's a huge chance of improvement, especially since their run on Archie to think up ideas wasn't particularly short and they still had SOME elements of their old material to fall back on there that they wouldn't here.

16 hours ago, Domino said:

Ehhh, I do think they went overboard with Antoine's redesign. Getting rid of his whiskers, snout shape, and eye markings just made him look like a brown Tails with a wig. It's weird that they got rid of his fancy coat, too. Especially since just a few years later we got Dr. Starline wearing his own fancy coat.

But I think the previous posters were talking more about the characterizations and backstories than the designs.

I feel like some of the designs were over homogenised. I think they looked at Uekawa's work and thought he had some sort of restrictive design style that he NEVER broke from, when some occasional characters that were rather different just implies he has a big comfort zone. Like 'Antoine can't wear a shirt because Uekawa never drawn boys with clothes' sounds REALLY reaching. You can't make new characters without breaking SOME moulds previous ones had.

Besides that though, I feel like even the pre-reboot kinda dumbed down their designs anyway. Like I think Sally was botched the moment they gave her Tails type eyes instead of her usual feminine Bambi ones, which play a lot more into how personality is displayed. If anything I might have been fine with the reboot design's changes if they had just reinstated those.

[Pengi]

Did the TV series give these characters much of a backstory, beyond "Robotnik conquered their city"?

Season 2 retconned in the idea that Robotnik had been ruling for a decade, contradicting the opening. That would need to go, but it wasn't a great idea to begin with.

Bunnie never got an origin in the TV series, beyond her having been half robotisized at some point. There are plenty of different ways to introduce a cyborg character without the robotisizer. Maybe she lost her limbs during the Sonic Forces war and Eggman gave her robotic prostheses (for his own testing purposes)?

[SBR2]

17 hours ago, Domino said:

Ehhh, I do think they went overboard with Antoine's redesign. Getting rid of his whiskers, snout shape, and eye markings just made him look like a brown Tails with a wig. It's weird that they got rid of his fancy coat, too. Especially since just a few years later we got Dr. Starline wearing his own fancy coat.

But I think the previous posters were talking more about the characterizations and backstories than the designs.

I meant that too. I actually think the Post-Reboot Archie comics were the absolute best blend of game material and SatAM (and AOSTH) material. Sonic felt like his game counterpart more but that history with the Freedom Fighters was still there but now with him still being a free spirit not bogged down by a connection or loyalty to a kingdom. He's helping them because their his friends not out of some connection to his nation or whatever. 

Plus I feel like the characters got a major upgrade just all around. I love that they were made to be on par with the Sega cast so it didn't feel so lopsided anymore when it came to skill set. 

I don't know. I just prefer the Post-Reboot continuity to the Pre-Reboot one.

[Red Hot Jack]

Ok, I want to be clear about my position, it does change a lot:

1. I have no attachment to these characters, didn't bother with SatAM and I read the whole Archie comic (excluding the very bad era around 80-140), didn't like any of them until the reboot, but still felt they were out of place overall despite the improvements.

2. I'm not opposed to them coming back if they are retooled. Everyone deserves a chance, but if they were to be the exception to the "past characters not returning" decision by SEGA... I will be legit mad.

3. I'm just sick of hearing about them everywhere, at this point they might as well be labelled as overrated characters, that's how I feel at least.

4. I don't see the point to keep asking SEGA PR on social media to bring them back when they already said various times they don't want any of them around, it's like beating a dead chipmunk. It's just gotten tiring, for me, for SEGA, and even for SatAM/Archie fans. If you want to keep being vocal about these characters, you are obviously free to do that, but you don't need my approval so I will keep my position too lol

5. There are already lots of Sonic characters old and new, I have a few favorite characters who are dead and forgotten too but I want to focus on what's still in the series, I like a lot of stuff.

6. What I would love to see and would probably be a better idea, is to keep the Freedom Fighters alive and present in fan projects, this is something cool that the fanbase can do, they are so freaking passionate, active and talented, so why not? For example, if you haven't seen Sonic Rebound, an animated adaptation of IDW's first saga, I recommend doing so because your favorite characters may show up in the future, probably, yeah... I'd say keep watching.

[E-122-Psi]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

I meant that too. I actually think the Post-Reboot Archie comics were the absolute best blend of game material and SatAM (and AOSTH) material. Sonic felt like his game counterpart more but that history with the Freedom Fighters was still there but now with him still being a free spirit not bogged down by a connection or loyalty to a kingdom. He's helping them because their his friends not out of some connection to his nation or whatever. 

Plus I feel like the characters got a major upgrade just all around. I love that they were made to be on par with the Sega cast so it didn't feel so lopsided anymore when it came to skill set. 

I don't know. I just prefer the Post-Reboot continuity to the Pre-Reboot one.

I agree that at least relatively, the post reboot seemed better handled, far more streamlined and less pretentious, but still having some relevance to the old Archie lore, like a games adaptation of sorts. Even then though that's more an all around thing, the Freedom Fighters are not the specific cause for that. If anything it's the Freedom Fighters that actually still show inklings of the same old problems from the pre reboot seeping back in (eg. Sally's dynamic with characters such as Cream). I actually feel like they were the hurdles there, the guys they didn't quite fully know how to SEGA-fy outside superficial elements like designs.

Add that even in regards to what the reboot improved, Ian has gone on the record saying he can't reutilise any of that, it's Archie's property now.

[Piko]

18 hours ago, Domino said:

The thing (and it's a big thing) about the Freedom Fighters is that their original purpose was to give Sonic a supporting cast to work with. Back in 1993, Sonic didn't have a ton of friends yet, so the SatAM showrunners had to fill in the gaps. But now, of course, Sonic already has an official supporting cast, and a significant one, too. If they reintroduce all the Freedom Fighters in the IDW series, they'll have to either repurpose them in a different way or risk bloating the already large recurring cast.

If the Freedom Fighters return somehow, their place in the story and relation to sonic will no doubt be different. The question is "how?"

Couldn’t have said it better myself. The Freedom Fighters were created specifically to flesh things out a bit, since the Sonic franchise didn’t have a ton of world building at the time. I’m not against them returning, but they’re just not needed anymore. Besides, the supporting cast is huge enough as it is.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say “X isn’t needed anymore,” I’d be rich enough to own Sega...

[Zaysho]

4 hours ago, Jack-ted said:

5. There are already lots of Sonic characters old and new, I have a few favorite characters who are dead and forgotten too but I want to focus on what's still in the series, I like a lot of stuff.

Then stop marching into threads about non-current things to tell us how sick you are of hearing about them like they take away from that.

[Mobotropolis]

@GentlemanX, hey. I remember you from Bumbleking. 
You made some pretty quality posts there, too. 

Let me just say -- I don't dislike the Freedom Fighters. Bringing them back wouldn't ruin IDW Sonic for me. Hell, the current writing team is talented enough to pull it off because they were the ones that made Archie Sonic modern -and- enjoyable in the first place. If SEGA let out a decree that said " Get Sally in there ", you better believe they'll find a way to make it work. 

All that I'm saying is they can't be what they were before. That's it. 

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if you think the book is going to stop introducing new, heroic characters

Don't think that at all. More that they have to strike a balance between heroic and villainous characters to keep the narrative from becoming stale. 

Since the majority of SegaSonic's characters are heroes it felt like the villains side got dealt a heavier blow between the Reboot and the jump to IDW. We lost the Egg Legion/Bosses, Dr. Finitevus, Scourge, The Hooligans, Regina and about a half dozen other villainous characters besides Eggman that Sonic could punch in the face. 

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she's mostly just Antoine's wife and a cowgirl accent.

Oh my gosh yes. 

The only protentional I see in the concept is that Sally, Bunnie, Nicole, Rotor and Antoine may be brought back as individuals who each assist Sonic in their own way and may not (yet) be connected to each other outside of their shared historical origin. That would not only appeal to fans of the characters but challenge the writers to do more with them beyond what they were typecast to be in the Archie Comics. 

By being forced to look at them as individuals instead of collective parts to a team the writers can redevelop them as individual characters and rework their purpose into the dynamic, Sure, they can ultimately become members of the Resistance -- but at least make them work to get that far. 

One thing I didn't like about Ian's attempts to modernize these characters was how often stuff seemed to suddenly happen. Suddenly Sally was into Ken. Suddenly Bunnie and Antoine get married after a vague relationship. Suddenly Rotor was into (and out of) politics. Sudden Nicole looked completely different. Can we have some build up? Some progression? So it doesn't feel like a twist and turn at every corner? 

Quote

Bunnie never got an origin in the TV series, beyond her having been half robotisized at some point.

Bunnie was roboticized the day of the coup in Blast to the Past. 

[Pengi]

40 minutes ago, Mobotropolis said:

Bunnie was roboticized the day of the coup in Blast to the Past. 

No she wasn't.

[Rabbitearsblog]

22 hours ago, Domino said:

The thing (and it's a big thing) about the Freedom Fighters is that their original purpose was to give Sonic a supporting cast to work with. Back in 1993, Sonic didn't have a ton of friends yet, so the SatAM showrunners had to fill in the gaps. But now, of course, Sonic already has an official supporting cast, and a significant one, too. If they reintroduce all the Freedom Fighters in the IDW series, they'll have to either repurpose them in a different way or risk bloating the already large recurring cast.

If the Freedom Fighters return somehow, their place in the story and relation to sonic will no doubt be different. The question is "how?"

I agree that since the Freedom Fighters were created at a time where Sonic didn't have a supporting cast, with the exception of Amy Rose, Tails and Knuckles, they might have to rewrite the Freedom Fighters again to make them fit into the current universe.

[Meta77]

The big thing to ask is are they REALLY needed. I think most just want them in it cause they are the FFs and many grew up with them and people have a hard time letting go to old things. I grew up with the comic back with issue 0 and it was a interesting ride with all the retcons and stories but with the end of Archie that literally felt like their end. No need for them to come back other than i grew up with this person i just want them in the stories. IDW has bee doing grew with the introduction of new characters and easing us into most of them over time. From starline, to the skunk brothers, to tangle and jewel. Just enough to get us by but still showing more of  their character over time. Each with unique personalities. And at the same time not over bearing. Heck tangle and whisper ever got into a mobile game. The other issue is not bloating the cast for again no other reason than to say here is old character A i just want them in cause i miss them. Most the new cast fill old gaps left by old characters. Why have sally? Seriously? Amy has grown by leaps and bounds recently. Both leading the resistance and with Sega allowing her to be more front and center in t he action and yet still play up her romance with sonic. Tails genius is on cue and honestly there is no need for the old cast. As someone said eariler no matter what you do SOMEONE will always not be happy with the time they are shown, nor would they probably even be based on their old characters. They would not be front and center like in the Archie verse.