Would Mobius 30 Years Later be considered the true finale to the Archie Sonic Comics?

[Rabbitearsblog]

So, do you consider Mobius 30 Years Later to be the true finale to the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog series?  Like, I understand that this is an alternative universe to the main Archie Sonic series, but it does have Sonic as an adult and ruling the kingdom alongside Sally and they also have kids as well.  Also, we get to see Tails married to Mina (which I don't understand how that happened, but whatever) and we see a new group of Freedom Fighters being formed by the original Freedom Fighters' kids.  So in a way, it does wrap up several plot threads from the main Archie Sonic series, which includes where Sonic and Sally's relationship will go and who would take over if the original Freedom Fighters are past their prime.

[Promethean0416]

Yeah, way back when I felt it could have been early on when I read the Archie Sonic series a long time ago, for Sonic, some of the core members, and the new generation of FF in the cast, but we all know what became of that when Genesis happened.

Nowadays, I don't think about it too much anymore to be honest, just a speedy blue ageless hedgehog going on timeless adventures with whatever comes his way...

[Zaysho]

It seems more like a possible future that was always in flux. Penders considered it a definitive future if only because it was a means of breaking away from or at least diminishing the old cast to do things entirely with his own creations, but other writers like Bollers and Flynn seemed to view it as but one possible future (it's effectively its own zone/dimension that happens to be similar enough to the prime dimension). That its own timeline was altered (under Penders, concluded by Flynn and Pellerito) makes it seem pretty inconclusive on its own.

Of course, this is from the perspective of someone who didn't read the comic for a brief period when the original storyline was published and the first time I'd ever heard of the future storyline was when King Shadow was part of the story and Knuckles was his enforcer around the time I got back into the book. And that particular part was shortly after Penders had already quit working on the Archie book. It's a fun possibility in its own right for what it's worth, but I think, ignoring the reboot which wiped it away anyway, I'm not sure I would see a new future playing out quite the same. Maybe very broad strokes stuff like Sonic and Sally still getting together, but stuff like Council and the diminished presence of the royal family would severely alter things. Whether Knuckles ever saves Julie-Su from Thrash and other things would also have to be considered.

It stopped being a definitive endpoint even before the legal problems kicked in in my mind, anyway.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Not really?

It was a fun little setting to explore a kind of future where Sonic actually settles down, but given that such a setting existed only in the pre-reboot Archie, it's status as any kind of finale is null and void.

There's nothing really to connect it to with the Archie as it was before cancellation. That on top of characters that are in a legal limbo (Lara-Su and Lien-Da, for example) and there's no way that future could ever come to pass.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

It wasn't ever the case anyways, Mobius 25/30 Years Later was never the canonical future of Archie Sonic. Even a few arcs later, they showed that by introducing alternative versions of Lara-Su in the Dark Mobius timeline during The Silver Saga. It was always supposed to just be one of many possible futures.

You can argue that a few of the threads here get wrapped up, like Sonic and Sally's relationship, but others just plain don't make sense. Mina and Tails being a item will never make sense when the regular series always showed that Mina did really love Ash, because Ash truly supported her goals and aspirations. The entire reason the Tails/Mina stuff exists is because Penders rationalised that "Mina is fast, Sonic is fast, Sonic is Tails' best friend, therefore Tails attracted to Mina".

There's a lot about the M25YL stuff that just isn't very satisfying, and isn't very interesting, and while in Ian's plotting, it at least made for a fun what if, it just isn't very good as a endpoint for these characters. Most of the endings outside Bunnie/Ant, Knuckles/Julie Su, and Sonic and Sally make very little sense, and having it all so heavily interconnected to Echidna lore and other garbage Penders insisted upon makes it even worse.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Would? No. But COULD? That's more fun question to explore.

Imagine Reboot never happened, Flynn got fired and the new writer decided XYL must be the one true future, could he put things ""right""?

 

- Mina x Tails and King Shadow are a bit weird, but within the realm of possibilities if you ask me.

- Silver's future doesn't fit (Sally is clearly not a "traitor who ruined all"), but his future was always meant to be fixed, so that's all good.

- I think the biggest snafu for me is Lien-Da. It's just crazy to think after everything she will go to being Lara's "favorite auntie". (Side note, the fact that there are two XYL timelines makes everything worse).

[Razule]

There was a picture of the new Freedom Fighters in Silver's time, so somehow, some version of the X Years Later timeline is canon. And the guardian is implied to be Lara-Su and Vector's kid's son.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I forgot that Lara Su was in this series.  But yeah, there are certain events that happened in this series that does contradict a lot with the main universe established, the most notable example being Tails and Mina marrying each other in the near future.  I mean, Tails and Mina barely interacted with each other in the main timeline, so why should they end up together in the future?  And in regards to King Shadow, Shadow in the main timeline hasn't really shown any homicidal tendencies that would lead him to take over the world.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

The Tails/Mina/Ash thing seems like the weakest case to me. Things happen, things change. Sometimes people meet, grow apart, and meet other people. Sometimes acquaintances get to know each other better. Things happen, that's why we get stories to tell us what happened.

A stronger case I haven't seen made is Locke. He died in 25YL, but then died under Ian's pen in the main timeline much earlier. And sure, one could argue he could be resurrected somehow, but I think by now we all know Ian's stance on death.

And even if he changed his mind, a certain someone ended nailing that coffin shut for good, anyway.

[Rabbitearsblog]

18 minutes ago, King Scoopa Koopa said:

The Tails/Mina/Ash thing seems like the weakest case to me. Things happen, things change. Sometimes people meet, grow apart, and meet other people. Sometimes acquaintances get to know each other better. Things happen, that's why we get stories to tell us what happened.

A stronger case I haven't seen made is Locke. He died in 25YL, but then died under Ian's pen in the main timeline much earlier. And sure, one could argue he could be resurrected somehow, but I think by now we all know Ian's stance on death.

And even if he changed his mind, a certain someone ended nailing that coffin shut for good, anyway.

I guess either way in regards to Locke, it wouldn't really change the overall narrative of this since he's technically dead in both universes.

[Sega DogTagz]

The 30 years later arc is itself the second iteration of the first future arc that literally collapsed on itself and re-wrote half the timeline. There are multiple characters in the arc that are an artifact of both futures.

 

That should be a big clue as to the level of distinctiveness this future holds over the comics. Nothing is set in stone and everything is fluid. Sonic plays daredevil against god level threats that can reshape reality on the regular. They are constantly bending time and space and breaching zones with effects they can't possibly comprehend.

 

If you need another clue, Silver is a big exclamation point in all this. His future has changed what 3, 4 five times by this point? Clearly anything related to the timeline of the archie-verse is up to interpretation. Things change at the drop of a hat.

 

[StreetSonic2022]

Nope, nope, and NOPE.

M25YL/30YL, (let's ignore Ian's input for a moment) was just a project Penders thought of back in the early 2000s when he was still working on the Knuckles series as the Knuckles: 20 Years Later arc. Certain ideas weren't included (Julie-Su having a second pregnancy and the inclusion of Dr. Droid as the main antagonist, hinted way back with Locke's visions in the Knuckles comics) and had to be revised in order for the project to get green-lighted. I'm happy that it is not the true future (thank God!) because Penders doesn't even know what the heck he was writing and ignoring various stuff, such as the Sega cast (Amy, Shadow, Rouge, the rest of the Chaotix, etc.) He had Knuckles at top-billing once more and having him bicker with Sonic, which was completely unnecessary. Speaking of Sonic, I didn't like Sonic as king. It didn't feel right, regardless of him married to Sally. Then you have the Tails X Mina pairing that was a crack pairing came out of nowhere with Penders' declaring that: "Mina is fast, Sonic is fast, Sonic is Tails' best friend, therefore Tails attracted to Mina". You would honestly thought that Amy would had been a better choice in that situation (if he had ever utilized her). 

Besides Steven Butler's art (except on certain cases, like the tribute to Locke on #14), Penders' M25YL was downright boring, ideas that were silly and doesn't make sense making it filler (the sleepover for the girls). Not to mention the sudden Rotor's sexual orientation comment that was no where hinted in his run. I don't want to go towards the Locke tribute because Ian killed him off in Enerjak Reborn Arc which I knew pissed Penders off when he saw it. 

Now on Ian's contribution with 30YL, it was a bit better and has better flow, and gave us the future Freedom Fighters. But it was still wasn't needed due to needing the original M25YL concepts and plot. Silver's inclusion made things complicated because it changed his future a couple of times. Not to mention the other storylines in the present, such as the traitor arc and the soon-to-be Endangered Species arc (that was going to bite Archie in the ass, all thanks to Penders!) Despite his contribution to make it better and make it one of the possible futures (Bollers also agreed on that), Ian still didn't utilized stuff entirely, even though he answered about Amy and Cream's role in the story. 

So, no. I don't see M25/30YL as the true future. If the legal mess did not happen, it would had been this: Eggman still alive, Sonic's still the main character but not as king (following his SEGASonic version), maybe Sally is queen. Knuckles and Julie-Su would still have Lara-Su, but majority of the echidnas may not exist (ditched the Brotherhood of Guardians at least), though Lien-Da and Rutan can be main antagonists with the Dark Legion/Presence. Shadow wouldn't be a tyrant. Other characters like Amy and the other cast would have better roles and inclusion. I'm not sure about Tails and Mina being together, being a crack pairing and all, but I did like their kids.

...also if Sonic ever have kids, give them better names. It was stupid to name them Sonia and Manic (with a k instead of c). They would've just brought in the actual Sonia and Manic from Underground to the main comics.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I guess I was mainly referring to Ian Flynn's 30 years later arc rather than Penders' 25 years later arc since Flynn's was the most recent at the time.  But yeah, I can see a lot of things in these arcs that wouldn't match up well with the main timeline since a lot has happened in the main timeline that just basically rewrote everything that these Years Later arcs did.