#sth 107

After that traumatizing story about a very serious subject matter, what do we get? Why, a connect the dots activity! For kids!

In recent years this has become one of the more infamous contributions Penders made to the comics just because it’s a fucking mess and because it’s easy to share and poke fun of out of context

I think someone forgot to tell Penders connect the dots activities are usually numbered. It’s hard to tell what it’s even supposed to BE, but I went ahead and connected the dots for everyone to show what it’s SUPPOSED to look like. I mean, maybe I got a couple things wrong, but I THINK that’s it? It’s Robotnik. SatAM Robotnik, because Penders is nothing if not perpetually stuck in the past. I have no fucking clue what the yellow line is supposed to be. Like, it’s partially his brow, but why does it extend all the way past his ear and down his head? It also really doesn’t help that he’s in profile

After some interference from the humans, Zan gets angry and slaps Dulcy away, confirming to everyone that he’s a physically abusive boyfriend. Sonic continues fighting him as Bunnie realizes that the bruises she saw on Dulcy’s arm weren’t from the humans, but from Zan. They talk a bit, but what I show here is pretty much it before the humans blow up the cave, killing Zan

This isn’t the first time abusive relationships have come up in this series, as we talked about them aaaallllll the way back during the Endgame arc, when Penders depicted Hershey as a victim of abuse. Once again: I think abuse is a very important topic to teach kids about. The way abusers function is widely misunderstood and incredibly insidious. But those discussions have to be treated delicately, and there is nothing delicate about this story

Like before, it’s an incredibly shallow depiction of abuse. Dulcy’s boyfriend hits her and is angry all the time, but she stays with him because she believes he loves her. This doesn’t get into the psychological manipulation abusers use to accomplish this. The way they isolate victims, make them hate themselves, make them feel like they have nowhere else to go. The threats if their victims think about leaving. The sweet talking. The way they lie about changing and make themselves out to be the true victims. The way abusers make themselves seem so charming and nice in public. I could go on and on

They don’t explicitly say it’s Dulcy’s fault here, but stories like this implicitly frame it as the woman’s fault for staying with a guy with zero redeeming qualities, when it’s much, much more complex than that

I mean, female echidna names are kinda... all extremely similar? Is your real name really gonna be that much of a giveaway. Is Remington really gonna hear “Lara-Su” and go “Oh my god! You must be Julie-Su and Knuckles’ daughter, who was named in part after Knuckles’ mother Lara-Le... which also means you’re from the future!” It’s not like she’d introduce herself as “Lara-Su of the House of Edmund”

The President suggests they get help from the dudes who tried to capture Sonic in the SA2 adaptation and Sonic just remembers the time he kicked their butts and starts laughing his ass off

There’s so much to take in here

Chaos Knuckles using his godlike omniscience to read his dad’s mind, see that he’s worried, and go “don’t worry dad, I’m fine”

Locke claiming he microwaved his goddamn son and turned him into a mutant superweapon with the power of a god out of “good intentions” and only JUST NOW realizing that maybe, just maybe, he fucked up