#skaruresonic

1.) Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Telling everyone that "IDW is canon, suck it up" is not going to ingratiate newbies to the fandom, because nobody likes required reading.

Yes, let's tell ten-year-old Timmy he has to read 75 issues of OC-riddled schlock in order to get his fan card stamped when he could just pick up a video game instead. Good plan.

2.) "IDW is canon" - proof? Missable namedrops and cameo appearances do not count. Unless they adapt one of the comic's arcs into a game, I don't buy it.

3.) "It's canon because Tangle and Whisper are showing up in CrossWorld!" - So you agree, the games are the core canon of this series. Why did we spend years hearing you guys be willfully obtuse about this with your "IDW is canon because Sega said so but also better than the games" schtick?

Oh, the games are only valid inasmuch as they can confer canon status on spinoffs? Not worth anything on their own until they acknowledge the book? Fuck off.

4.) Just because something is canon doesn't make it immune to criticism. Contrary to popular opinion, game purists can and do criticize the games' narratives sometimes. The metal virus wouldn't magically become quality storytelling if it became a game tomorrow. It would still be shit because it's a badly-written story any way you dice it.

5.) Based on the fact that Tangle is a missable namedrop in Frontiers and Tangle and Whisper aren't even receiving custom models in CrossWorld, honestly I get the feeling Sega is throwing you guys a bone just to get you off their backs, which is way more embarrassing because you're receiving less than the bare minimum for Sega's Evil Marketing Purposes(tm) and worse, you're celebrating getting scraps. "Deepthroating Sega's boot," you say of game purists, meanwhile you're falling for the oldest corporate keikaku in the book.

At least be like the Shadow haters out there and demand a year dedicated to your blorbos, because this is a zero-sum game where more attention for one character means less for the others, apparently. Can you tell how tired I am.

I understand being desperate in a drought, but maybe have some standards higher than "has polygons"? Don't you care about characterization, or plot, or theme, or how Whisper and Tangle might interact with other characters (which, given that the DLC characters don't have rival interactions, is kinda :v)... Anything? No? It's enough just to have them in 3D?

My dudes, if your standards are that low for something to be considered canon in Sonic, then that absolutely speaks volumes about your opinion on the series.

What do you think the games are? Random shit happening to technicolor animal people on a TV screen? Maybe IDW does things that way, but mainline Sonic games usually have something of substance happen. And CrossWorld doesn't even have a story mode, FFS.

As an Adventure-era fan, I felt rather insulted when they tried shoving Shadow's backstory down my throat in the Year of Shadow because I felt like Sega were presuming the kind of fan I was: one with the memory of a goldfish, who would swallow hype just because it Reminded Me Of The Thing I Used To Like.

So why aren't you guys more insulted that they're basically giving you scraps? It's not even like you're getting a full-fledged game.

Can confirm. When I was a kid, centuries ago, I used to be able to find Archie Sonic comics sitting on the shelf of the local drugstore. That's what alerted me to the existence of Archie Sonic - the cover of issue 127 caught my eye.

Ngl this is a pretty dope cover. Hehe Sonic in space.

And these were tiny Christian suburbs with five churches and nothing to do: the one hangout spot they tried to set up, they closed an hour after school let out for choir practice.

Nowadays, I can't go to the grocery store and pick up a new IDW issue; I'd have to go to a comics shop hours away, where individual issues cost $5.99 or even $7.99 instead of $2.99.

Back in Ye Olden Days, you were also able to sign up for subscriptions where you'd get the latest issue delivered to your mailbox once a month for a year or so. Idek if they offer that for IDW.

The only way to reliably read IDW Sonic is to buy it digitally, watch YouTube dubs, or pirate it.

That's why those pirated views number in the millions, because there's no fucking way to buy this shit in-person, so every view represents another lost customer. I don't even necessarily agree that the comic is going to get canceled anytime soon because it is the only thing keeping the lights on at the company, just about, but you can't deny that the interest is just not translating into sales.

Even then, pirating sites flash huge "PLAY BIG BOOBIE GAME NOW!!!" ads in your face every time you turn the page, and idk if little Timmy's mother is going to appreciate her son downloading viruses to her iPad.

I remember that too, the subscription service. I got that for the 'Return to Angel Island part 2' for Archie, then didn't renew it after Issue 150. I do wonder why...

I dunno if the individual IDW comics even have the subscription service with them - I only have the first eight issues collected into two volumes, so I cannot really tell if that's helping or not. I think that's where most of the IDW Sonic comics money is coming from - the even more expensive volumes that only hold 4 issues, and not the actual issues themselves.

Unless IDW is getting the boob ad money from pirate sites, I doubt that they're getting anything from being pirated or by those silly YouTube videos that hardly show the panels together. I still think that IDW is gonna shut it's doors, it's just going to take a long ass time because someone stupid keeps injecting more money into it's dying corpse.

The numbers aren't translating into sales. Little Timmy and Jimmy would rather play the more accessible games than read a comic they have to scrounge in a sea of Spiderman and Superman in general. There's no way for them to even get more if they wanted. Meanwhile, computer controllers cost around $20-30 Canadian for the cheapest stuff, and Steam is essentially a free service for any computer, as long as any of them have access to the internet, which most households nowadays have.

Jesse. What are you talking about. Sonic Adventure is probably the closest you're going to get to a modern Sonic title that shares structural and aesthetic DNA with the Classics without actually being a New Classic title. If you play a DC mod of the game, "it isn't colorful enough" is the last thing you would say about it.

Like, the Dreamcast's LANTERN engine changes the rim shading of Sonic's character model based on environment he's in. In a 1998 game. Not even some newer Sonic games do that. (Fun fact: they may have tried reusing the LANTERN engine for SA2's beta cutscenes. It, uhhh. Doesn't look too good lol.) I more often see this criticism lobbed at SA2 and don't agree with it there either, because the ARK called and wants its dues. But it sounds like they really only played DX, crawled out of the sewer in Casinopolis and thought that was it. This isn't even getting into the fact that A.) environmental design encompasses more than just color palette and B.) if you really think about it, some of Sonic 1's levels are muted and even a bit pedestrian compared to its successors, with one dominant color scheme interspersed with brief accents for contrast. I would even go so far to say that, for as colorful as CD is, it also can be a bit muted compared to 2 and 3 because it largely copy-pastes 1's environments.

"(inaccurate information)"

Still not an argument. Do your research.

"It's canon because SoA says so!"

And what if the lore team told us Sonic's world was made of pudding? Still not an argument.

"No one cares what you have to say."

You cared enough to get mad on a "nobody's" post, but it's still not an argument.

"Goalpost moving!"

Still not seeing an argument here.

"You're illiterate."

Still not an argument.

"Just accept it."

No, Patrick, coercion is not an argument, either.

"Stop talking about it!"

I'm waiting until you provide an actual argument lmao.

We can argue about the merits of writing, characterization, and gameplay all day, but specifically, I've been thinking about the yardstick people often seem to apply to the series. Based on the way they talk about Sonic, you'd think the series needs to have an intensive, watertight lore and a story written by Kojima.

I don't think a Sonic story needs to be deep or dark in order to be good. I don't even think the writing needs to be complex or dynamic, necessarily; sometimes a message is handled best when it's delivered simply.

Although it's true that the games do feature darker elements, those elements have always been handled with tact and sensitivity out of a genuine care for the subject matter. Which brings me to what I think is the real crux of the issue: emotional honesty. Is the work trying to be something it's not?

I came to this realization after contemplating why games like SA2 and Forces (put down your torches and pitchforks) made me mist up where other works might not.

There are a number of reasons, but overall, I think most of it has to do with those games being thematically cohesive, if not always narratively cohesive, and remaining genuine to the messages they try to impart. Both are games that stick the landing despite being uneven in places.

IDW and the movies are not emotionally honest, in the sense that they don't employ any narrative or characterization decisions in service of greater themes. They just make shit happen to get a reaction from the audience, logic and theme be damned. And the kicker is that people gas both IDW and the films up as superior to the games when they're actually inferior, just in terms of sheer technical construction.

SA2 may suffer the occasional bit of wonky writing, but it is thematically coherent enough for me to be able to overlook that. And I'd deign to argue that most things people call plot holes aren't really plot holes, if you just thought about the information the game gives you. The game doesn't spoonfeed it to you, is all.

Battle? Has excellent characterization, as well as employs a foil between Eggman's and Gerald's treatment of Emerl as a commentary on mankind's responsibility wrt WMDs. It can be a bit heavy-handed as far as anti-war tracts go, but "This is the final voice of the last war machine" is still Shadow's rawest line, and no one can take that away from me lol.

I'd argue that SatSR is the best-written Sonic game. Its characterization is nuanced, the execution of its themes was tastefully done - subtly, even - and it features symbolism in a way that doesn't quite shove it in your face the way SatBK does.

It's definitely not on par with something like Silent Hill 2, but it's worth remembering that a Sonic game doesn't need to be Silent Hill 2: Sonic Edition to be good. As long as it tells its story honestly, a lot of flaws can be forgiven.

What do the spinoffs have? Vibes. That's about it. You can't really enjoy them on their own merits because they don't maintain any internal consistency, which is ironic considering how much people claim the games are inconsistent.

IDW? Can anyone tell me what its core message is? "Sonic offers anyone freedom out of his staunch belief in freedom as a general idea, regardless of if it hurts people or if it backfires on him, because it gives him Depth(tm) and Texture(tm) as a character"? "Sonic vs. Eggman is a dumb and harmful cycle we must stop because reasons"?

That's... kind of cynical, don't you think?

SA2 had things to say on anti-authoritarianism, grief, revenge, hope, atonement, and keeping true to yourself even in the face of doubt and hardship (ex. Shadow asserting he's still him even if his memories were false; Sonic seeking to clear his image and asserting "what you see is what you get": the two are foils and mirror reflections).

What was Sonic 3 trying to say? "I knew Maria wouldn't want me to destroy the world, but screw it, I'm doing it anyway because my pain is what matters most"? Shut up and clap for Live and Learn, you nostalgia-blind pleb.

Like, you can tell the difference. One is trying to say something. The other plays at saying something while saying nothing.

Honestly, this is how I feel with the anon trying to take my well-earned 'Sonic the Hedgehog Fan' sticker, despite showcasing that unlike them, I have more proof of myself understanding the games and how they operate.

Yeah, I recently replayed "A Red Letter Day" just as a refresher because it's been ages since I last touched the source material, and it amused me how much of a goober Barney is compared to his characterization in fanfic.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Barney angst, but the reality is he seems to treat his Metrocop job as little more than another 9-5.

His snarkier lines also reminded me that he's kind of a jackass. Suddenly I remembered why I didn't like him when I first played HL2, dkjnfkjdsn.

To a lesser extent, I think Alyx suffers a bit of the same problem, despite having the richest emotional range of the cast besides maybe Eli. The game portrays her as an optimist and emotionally well-adjusted - strange, given the circumstances - and we tend to take the ball and run with it.

Yes to all of this. "He's just acting like that because he's worn down by circumstance and he's suppressing all the Trauma!!™️" is a logical and interesting interpretation but it's so painfully clear that Valve did not put that much thought into Barney's characterization. Also love me some Barney angst but anyone who claims these themes are in the text is either confused, illiterate, or lying.

You raise an interesting point about Alyx, too. I go back and forth on whether I think she's actually that well-adjusted or just good at suppressing her emotions for the sake of survival. It's probably a bit of both? Since she was so young when the Resonance Cascade happened, she'd have a very different relationship to the Before Times than her peers in that her longing for the past is more abstract and maybe less painful or ever-present. She's also maintained long-term relationships with friends and family longer than most other people in Combine-occupied Earth. But then again, she still spent her formative years surrounded by death and fascism, so...?