#salemanalysis

Topic: Salem (Spoilers)

Salem is an interesting figure in this fic. On the plus side, she has much more explanation for her motives—planning to use the Chaos Emerald to become more powerful than Super Sonic and defeat the Brother Gods and Ozma in revenge. She's also given more time to be human and intelligent, clearly stringing Eggman along while also caring for her old family. She has composite goals of wanting to break her curse as well before deciding to use the Emerald for revenge.

My issues: Ironprime's fics usually have a pattern where one group of villains defeats the other franchise's villains. While the line between who is "Eviler than Thou" in the fanfic is far more blurry than in his other fanfics—whereas The Shredder and Megatron pretty much establish themselves as the Crossover Villain-in-Chief from the get-go—here, both sides show equally competent planning, both against the heroes and each other.

Salem acts much more submissive. In canon, she would put her foot down when someone pushed their limits. Granted, it's said she didn't do so here because she didn't want to waste time fighting Eggman and fighting the heroes as well, but she still acts very limited. This is unfortunate considering that at the end of the day, Eggman is far cooler, better, and a more interesting antagonist compared to canon Salem, whose motives remain foggy. I don't agree with this view, but that's the general consensus when comparing the two.

Along with that, Salem seemingly acts very arrogant, though we have to remember Salem never faced Sonic, so it's not unfounded even if she saw the videos. Plus, her plans did work pretty well until both Salem and Eggman slipped up. And no, unlike how the narrative implies, it's not all Salem's fault for leaving the emeralds by a trapped Ruby—Eggman was the one who decided to crush her spirits, thus it's both their faults. Plus, it's Sonic's pattern for new villains to believe themselves above Sonic, only for Sonic to obviously prove them wrong.

Now, who would take over as the main villain is unknown. Eggman has a bad habit of not fully thinking through his plans, and given that his track record vs Sonic is spotty, it's possible he'll overstep and lose first. He's been successfully betrayed by Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, Mecha Knuckles, Gamma, Omega, Gemerl, the Deadly Six, the Hard Boiled Heavies, Dr. Starline, Trip, Eggman Nega, Mother Wisp, and Infinite—and those are just the major examples.

On the other hand, Salem is so used to being in full control of what's going on in her "war." Perhaps having elements of chaos like Sonic and the Emeralds will end up surprising her in different ways, leading to her downfall. After all, despite the different dynamics, Iron117Prime usually has the "outside" force have a little extra oomph to win compared with the locals. So either we might get Eggman or Salem as the main villain, or both.

Along with that, her whole team is repeatedly bullied into submission by Eggman despite Eggman only talking tough due to having a robotic Sonic doppelganger protecting them. While I get Eggman is above them in terms of power and skill, narratively and his personality traits mean he's obviously not as powerful as he seems. This also makes Salem's group feel non-threatening, making me wonder why we should be worried for the heroes—correction, the Sonic heroes, because sure Salem's group can beat the RWBY heroes, but it feels kinda wrong. Though it's implied only Salem might be the main threat on the RWBY side, which kinda bites since seeing the RWBY villains mingle with the Sonic heroes/villains would be more interesting.