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Post by Badly-Drawn Manchild on Oct 1, 2013 21:35:43 GMT
I can't hold it in any longer; I've got to be honest with you guys... This comic, and the strips in it, made me angry.
The longer this storyline stretches on, the less and less sense it makes and the more downright mean-spirited it feels. So now the people of Mobius are going to actively rewrite their history, and apparently they're already in the process of doing that?! I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that the people of Mobius, whose lives Sonic has saved countless lives, and the people he has fought alongside in a war for freedom and the safety of the people, would apparently be so willing - nay, eager - to believe that Sonic had truly gone bad. Are you telling me that not one single, solitary person has questioned any of this, has wondered why Sonic made such a drastic U-turn? It's like with the civilians in the Marvel and DC universes; they are terminally stupid and happy to believe the worst of their heroes. Frankly, I'm thinking these people DESERVE to be Robotnik's organic batteries, and that's not a good sign.
Okay, I think I can see where this storyline is going; that Sonic is going to be pushed beyond the limits of his endurance, that he becomes so broken that he actually decides "screw you all", becomes Super Sonic permanently and wipes everyone out, and it's going to be Mobius' damn fault that it happened. That in itself isn't a bad idea, but it requires so many implausible things to come about and it makes me feel that everyone in the comic has had a lobotomy. For one thing, why hasn't Tails said anything? If there's one thing he should have learned from Sonic by now, it's that people listen to the Hero of Mobius (by the way, Sonic saying that nobody would listen to Tails is extremely dickish, and sounds more like the jerkwad Sonic that started out in the series than the person he should be today; yet another indication of Sonic's wildly inconsistent character lately). Also, now that the Omni-Viewer has appeared, here's an idea; why not get Omni to retrace Sonic's timeline and verify his story? I don't know if I missed something, but Grimer can't possibly have covered his tracks THAT well! If he did it for Knuckles, why not Sonic? I'm sorry, but when you stop to think about this whole setup, and what it's likely building up to, the whole thing just falls apart.
Okay, to be fair, I liked Silver's strip, seeing his shock at seeing his world whole, then of learning the true history of Sonic's struggle with Robotnik, and it makes sense for him to try to stop Sonic before he brings about an apocalypse. It makes sense with Silver's character, since his brashness and his "whatever it takes" attitude have been established. However, if I'm right, then the whole build-up to this idea feels utterly wrong somehow; both the Sonic and Sonic's World strips to me were just ugly, and came across as needlessly mean-spirited.
I mean no disrespect to anybody who works on the comic, but I felt that I had to get that off my chest. This comic's going in a direction that I really don't like, and I can only hope that the writers know what they're doing with this.
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Adamis
Artist Hume
Yay
Posts: 1,339
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Post by Adamis on Oct 1, 2013 21:47:31 GMT
Wrong
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Post by Badly-Drawn Manchild on Oct 1, 2013 21:56:59 GMT
Wrong Well, even if I'm wrong, it still feels like such an absurd set of contrivances for whatever story it is you've got cooked up. This whole storyline's just leaving me with a bad, bad feeling.
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Post by ShayMay on Oct 1, 2013 22:06:14 GMT
Hey BDM, thanks for your thoughts. Sorry to hear you aren't enjoying it. I absolutely get your concerns with the overall story arc, and I can see why you would feel really anxious considering the direction you think it's going (which, considering the evidence, is not a daft guess). Don't worry though - we aren't going to have Sonic abandon Mobius. I would like to ask about this, though, in the interests of self-improvement: Sonic's World strips to me were just ugly, and came across as needlessly mean-spirited. My intention with this one was to have Toby be a likeable loser, to have him be downtrodden and sympathetic, and get someone back on Sonic's side, even if it's just a kid. I would be interested to know why you think it's ugly and mean-spirited. That's not a challenge at all! I can see where you're coming from, I do put him through the wringer a bit in the strip. But my intention was to make it more bittersweet - uplifting in some ways but comically depressing in others. Anyway, yeah. Sorry to hear you aren't enjoying it, again. Thanks for the honest feedback!
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Post by Fools in Miru on Oct 2, 2013 3:17:47 GMT
I can see where this is going: Due to Silver's ineptitude , Robotnik takes Möbius and it's Robotnik Rules all over again.
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Post by Badly-Drawn Manchild on Oct 2, 2013 7:10:03 GMT
My intention with this one was to have Toby be a likeable loser, to have him be downtrodden and sympathetic, and get someone back on Sonic's side, even if it's just a kid. I would be interested to know why you think it's ugly and mean-spirited. That's not a challenge at all! I can see where you're coming from, I do put him through the wringer a bit in the strip. But my intention was to make it more bittersweet - uplifting in some ways but comically depressing in others. It wasn't so much Toby that was the problem; he's a kid, I wouldn't expect him to know any better on the matter. It was the world around him that I took issue with. It's kinda hard to explain, but I guess it's just my own hatred of this apparent "revisionist history" phase Mobius is going through, or that all the adults seem to have atrocious memory spans. I could kind-of see why it came about in Silver's time, as it was likely done after the Iblis event and that would sour anybody's view of Sonic. In-universe though it wasn't that long ago when Sonic saved the people a number of times from being dominated or annihilated, but now Mobius has become some kind of bizarro-land where nobody is allowed to have a dissenting thought from the normal. True, attempts to support Sonic have backfired horribly in the past (as poor Norris Wimple can attest to), but I just find it hard to believe that Toby's teacher, of all people, would encourage this mentality of "joining the flock" (and I mean that in a bad way). Oh, and Sonic really did sound like a complete dick. This is an issue I've had with STC for a while; Sonic's character just seems wildly inconsistent. One issue he's the much less self-centred individual that began to emerge in the Chaos arc, the next he's back in full-on beginning-of-the-run jerk mode. It just makes him look like a very unstable individual.
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Post by ShayMay on Oct 2, 2013 10:56:08 GMT
Hm, really? Since it was just a minor Badnik attack I thought Sonic would have used the opportunity to have some fun. I can't recall ever really having him be a dick to Toby - he teases him a little but never insults him. I am afraid of our Sonic losing his personality and becoming like the games' Sonic, or more grumpy and downbeat. My justification is that Sonic is more ready and willing to be serious when the situation calls for it, but when the situation isn't so bad he will revert back to being the same old Sonic. Ed struck this balance perfectly, and while it's tricky to do with Sonic the Fugitive, that's not really an excuse. I'll have a chat with Stiv about it.
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Post by Eleonora B.M on Oct 2, 2013 14:50:14 GMT
The longer this storyline stretches on, the less and less sense it makes and the more downright mean-spirited it feels. So now the people of Mobius are going to actively rewrite their history, and apparently they're already in the process of doing that?! I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that the people of Mobius, whose lives Sonic has saved countless lives, and the people he has fought alongside in a war for freedom and the safety of the people, would apparently be so willing - nay, eager - to believe that Sonic had truly gone bad. Are you telling me that not one single, solitary person has questioned any of this, has wondered why Sonic made such a drastic U-turn? It's like with the civilians in the Marvel and DC universes; they are terminally stupid and happy to believe the worst of their heroes. Frankly, I'm thinking these people DESERVE to be Robotnik's organic batteries, and that's not a good sign. I mean no disrespect to anybody who works on the comic, but I felt that I had to get that off my chest. This comic's going in a direction that I really don't like, and I can only hope that the writers know what they're doing with this. Just to say (and always without disrispect) I've noticed a long time agò that the direction this all thing was going in was wrong. The strips are basically pointless, I can't sake off the feeling that the art has had a bit of a drop, the story isn't actually going anywhere (aside the Silver/Blaze thing). But what bugs me MOST of all is what you basically said about Sonic having contraddicting actings. Actually everyone is acting in a contracting ways, mostly away from their former personality and without the slightest introspection. They're mere walking figures that state or do stuff. Where's personality, where are feelings? Mostly now, I've stopped making sense of the characters! It's been quite a while, I recall, that I left because I had other important things to do and didn't like how things were turning. I didn't wantto complain, also because these are probably the least bad strips I've seen in a while. But since you're bringing this up.........I keep thinking the problem is that people won't sit down in a full conversation and discuss and decide ALL TOGETHER where this is going and how characters should act and come out of this. The feeling truly is that everyone is going on it's own and giving their personal fan-ish inview. This said I'm not taking back slightly the comment I had made before on this discussion about the individual strip.
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Post by Badly-Drawn Manchild on Oct 2, 2013 16:22:46 GMT
Hm, really? Since it was just a minor Badnik attack I thought Sonic would have used the opportunity to have some fun. I can't recall ever really having him be a dick to Toby - he teases him a little but never insults him. Not to Toby, sure, but I'd say the part that got me was how flippantly dismissive Sonic was of Tails. You'd think he of all people would know how important the position of HERO OF FRICKIN' MOBIUS is; he should remember that people DO listen to you in that position, and I'm surprised Tails hasn't realised this himself. Even if he hasn't got any proof of Sonic's innocence you'd think a few words from him would at least sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of others, make them wonder if Sonic really is guilty, buy a bit of time until proof of Sonic's innocence can be found. It comes across less like mild teasing and more like Sonic's lost his mind and is being needlessly insulting to Tails.
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Post by Charles on Oct 2, 2013 18:58:34 GMT
The strips are basically pointless How so?
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Post by Mambo's Here! Look Busy! on Oct 2, 2013 21:46:45 GMT
To the point that Sonic the Fugitive is a bad storyline because it implies the population of Mobius is stupid; I'd say exactly.Sonic's reputation fell well before the Mega Mack bomb because of media coverage. People believed what the media told them. I'd say this storyline is a nice allegory of what is going on in Britain today. Look at the current debate over whether Ralph Milliband hated Britain, or was just analysing it's political landscape. Labelling someone a "Britain hater" is a malicious way to get people to suddenly swing their opinion on someone without even thinking. This is exactly what's happened to our Sonic, here. Sorry, I'm probably taking this way too seriously but the power of the media is so strong, I'm not surprised that most of Mobius is suddenly afraid of someone with physics-defying powers!
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Post by Charles on Oct 2, 2013 22:29:53 GMT
We should also remember - Ed made sure to flag it up - that when the slander hit, it had been years since Sonic had overthrown Robotnik and Mobius had changed and Sonic's most public heroism was in the 'old days'. He wouldn't be the first person to once be a hero and then fall out of fashion, or have his murkier bits come into the public domain and get revisionist history about him. And Mobians aren't reading STC-O, so we know a Metallix replaced Sonic after all those DNA tests to prove it was really him but they don't know squat (and that includes the Freedom Fighters).
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Post by draph91 on Oct 3, 2013 9:38:36 GMT
hey you know what would be funny, Silver causes a time paradox, I'll leave that hanging so you figure out what I mean
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Post by modochi on Oct 4, 2013 23:47:06 GMT
I like this issue, while the storyline is dragging on I actually think its neat to see just how messed up the world is becoming thanks to nothing more than a load of bad PR and a brilliant/underhanded trick by Grimer. It's not that farfetched that a few decades of negatives viewpoints and repeated teachings of how evil Sonic is to kids will eventually rewrite him from being the hero into the villain.
And just as it is our world, it's highly likely mostly the minority who dislikes Sonic who gets heard in the media daily.
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Post by Eleonora B.M on Oct 6, 2013 21:20:09 GMT
The strips are basically pointless How so? they don't carry on a magior plot, they don't add actual notions to the story, the main characters aren't actually introspected and/or studied on how their thoughts or acts change thoughout the numbers, there is no development in their relationships. For the economy of the story, since number 256 (Tails' halloween story aside), they are in my book mostly pointles. While I really liked and found legit the "we got bored of Sonic superstar, let's slander him in media" and the "turned bad" parts and the fact that even Amy, Knuckles and Porker lost faith in him, I dislike how it was dragged on without actual studied development.
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Post by Fools in Miru on Oct 8, 2013 2:02:08 GMT
I predict even Tails will lose faith in Sonic.
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Ed
Ex-Hume
Satan (Apparently)
Posts: 4,320
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Post by Ed on Oct 18, 2013 20:47:07 GMT
Mambo: Nice link. Have you considered the counterpoint though -- that unquestioning hero-worship is really the preserve of dictatorships. Free people have a free press and a free press is always looking for truth and scandal (both are optimal but one will suffice). Kane never hated Sonic, he just saw both profit and public interest in bringing him down. Sonic, for his part, broke into Kane's studio and helicopter, damaged his property, threatened his staff and was credibly associated with a terrorist plot and a world-destroying demon. Sonic acts like an egomaniacal vigilante rather than a citizen of a free democracy under the rule of law. And the previous, innocent Mobius could never have fought back as it did in #250. (Not saying where I land on all this, just that the story was written to support a range of conclusions).
Actually, I've been surprised how much mileage the comic is getting out of Sonic-as-enemy. My own thinking was that Sonic would be off-planet from #251, exploring the Drakon Empire (and ancient Mobius), unable to return home until he has found a way to break the Drakons' stranglehold on Mobius. Meanwhile we'd see Tails leading the FFs and probably getting in way over his head. This would last for 10-12 issues until Sonic eventually returns to save the day in a dramatic fashion and earns his right to a second chance and to rejoin the FFs (probably as one of Tails' followers which would have amused me). Sonic would be an edgy and controversial character and only Tails would totally trust him. Of course, what the current team have done with it is perfectly legitimate and makes sense -- just not at all what I imagined when I wrote #248.
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