This section covers Bad Guys, Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Zeti Hunt, and Test Run.
Imagine that most of this follows the original story. Pretty solid for a bit.
Surge is another character whose personality is tied to her trauma. In this case, being kidnapped, having her entire identity and agency robbed of, and hypnotized into a whole new personality by Starline. That’s why she’s punk, that’s why she’s violent, that’s why she shows her shark teeth and belts and metal accessories. It's not what she chose to be.
And that’s just going to be her personality—simply the vibes of her. She’s not going to heal from this because that’s what she’s being branded as, that’s what she’s being praised for by marketing and the writers. Just like Whisper, by concept, Surge should not be praised for how she is. The narrative should have her heal from this.
And Kit too. Flynn himself has admitted that the OCs have more latitude for character progression, so we should see this happen.
Yes, the OCs have less oversight on their general characterization and have more latitude to move. So that was the same as back in the Archie days, and one of the reasons why there was such a robust extended cast is that you could do full character arcs and changes, whereas the licensed characters always had to remain recognizable.
Children’s fantasy, introductory level writing, all things Flynn has described IDW’s writing as, so this should be obvious from the start.
I should also add that, while I’ve heard Surge and Kit are said to be rip-offs of #17 and #18 from Dragon Ball, this idea of mad science cybernetically enhancing a living creature to control the world has been done before in the form of Infinite. Of course, the difference being that the narrative shows Infinite as insecure while Surge and Kit are praised despite both being relatively the same.
Haha, it’s kind of like Scourge the Hedgehog from Archie. Made as a parody of Sonic OCs, still written as badass and praised by writers and a lot of time is devoted by how cool they are.
Outside Eggperial City, Surge, Kit, and Starline stare at the scene. Starline activates his Tri-Core, signaling the rest to speed off into the city. Starline dodges with artificial speed, and Surge and Kit perform wanton destruction to all its troops. An Egg Hammer appears to try and stop them, but Kit restrains its limbs while Surge goes for the headshot.
“Keep drawing their fire while I upload the override program!” And Starline heads right inside the main tower. Surge and Kit act as they’re told, but they secretly enjoy releasing their stress onto the robots. High up, Orbot and Cubot return from their vacation and are sent right back to work. Eggman turned suspicious towards the two at first, but realizes that they’re too idiotic to genuinely revolt against him.
Anyway… Orbot pulls up a screen at the request of Eggman; reports of destroyed robots by a speedster and their companion – Haya and Tails likely. Unusually enough, this “speedster and their companion” seems to be someone else, but algorithmically aligns with Haya and Tails. No matter, someone who destroys Eggman’s toys needs to be destroyed themself.
Bouncing on a ton of Eggman’s robots later, Surge is struck from the side by Metal Haya, the attack sending both of them very far away from Kit.
She’s not getting any assistance from Kit, sorry I'm gonna need her to prove herself.
Instinctually, Surge shoots her electricity at Metal, but it doesn’t affect him at all. She tries kicking away from Metal’s grasp, but he dodges and headbonks her, dazing her for just a small second to allow him to grab Surge’s ponytail and throw her into a fountain with a statue of Eggman shooting water from his lips. BOOM!
From the crumbling smoke, Surge juts out of the clouds and homing attacks Metal. While her first hit knocked off Metal’s ear, a second attempt had her bounce off of his activated Black Shield. Now in the air, Metal rammed himself again towards Surge, this time to have her face a building. Surge pulls herself with her hands on Metal’s head. She pushes herself… slowly… hand standing on Metal… Then, when the building is about to hit her – she lets go and kicks Metal towards the building’s direction!
She does land the hit, but Metal is still active and emerges out of the rubble. Surge is still falling, so he brings her down on the ground with a downwards kick, bringing forth a large line of cracks all throughout the city. Far away, Kit sees these cracks and swiftly tracks the source.
Surge coughs hard at this, unable to stand up, but she doesn’t have enough time to recover as Metal Haya descends and reveals his claws. Surge glares angrily at Metal, likewise the same. He then dives down at Surge, both of his sharp tendrils are quickly halted by Surge’s hands. Metal digs in deeper, Surge clenches harder. Metal determines that this push-of-war would take a long time, so he activates his propulsion system to speed up the process.
Metal descends deeper and deeper onto Surge. Her arms scream in pain–Surge screams in pain. Out of both claws, Metal's left one seems to reach the closest to Surge's face, aimed directly at her right eye. Surge’s heart is pounding, her head feels like bursting, and she closes her eyes as her arms are giving out…
Vrrmmm…! His propulsion jet’s red. VRRmmm…! The jet’s purple. VRRMMM!!! Dark blue.
...
Surge’s arms are freed at last. At least, if she can feel it; all of the adrenaline had drained her arms of blood and they fall limp. She opens her eye to see Metal violently trashing about from the water holding him back. It’s Kit, oh thank the Stars it’s Kit.
With the restraints on Metal, Kit commands Metal’s limbs to shred himself to bits. Scritch, scratch, claw mark after claw mark tears through Metal as he tries resisting, but eventually he gives out, and even his eyes deactivate as he drifts onto the water, motionless. Kit throws him aside and rushes to Surge’s aid.
Surge lies to Kit that nothing is wrong with her, but Kit finally addresses her injury: three, deep, claw marks are on her right eye. She also still can’t fully stand up.
Her overconfidence has been punished. Also let's forego the red on the claw mark; don't think they'd like that.
Kit applies some water to Surge’s wound. It hurts, and Surge yelps for a bit, but it won’t cause the wound to get infected as their regenerative ability activates. Finally, Surge stands up, wobbly, but stands up. She consciously takes steps to a trail of stairs, something to sit and lean on atleast.
Kit joins her. Silently, she leans against him for support. Being close to him, Surge calms down and silently listens to the waves of water from Kit’s pack. Time passes, and they notice that all of Eggman’s robots are moving into Eggperial City. Seems Starline has managed to take control of the robots now. Staring at all of the air-based robots like falling stars, Surge starts confiding in Kit. If Haya were just like Metal Haya, strength and all, she asks for Kit to support him. Kit asks what will happen if Tails would be there, to which Surge responds that both of them can take them on.
“B-Burn it all down”, Surge painfully and angrily repeats to herself. Kit says the same, although more composed.
The original story had Surge fight Metal because it’s “copy vs. copy”. Who’s the best “copy”, you know? Really simple, but I want Surge here to actually learn something from this.
Metal is a mirror of Haya, a version Eggman desires to have of Haya. Loyal, cold, and vicious. Right now, Surge’s only open opinions of Haya are through Starline and Metal, a biased and twisted view respectively. If you put Haya and Surge in a blank room to fight eachother out, Haya would come out on top, but he wouldn’t end it by making Surge bleed. That’s a critical difference between the two, but Surge doesn’t know that. What she’s learned from her wound is that Haya is dangerous, and she needs Kit’s support.
Okay let’s talk about the fight itself.
In the original issue, Metal Sonic was defeated by being encased in water and zapped with electricity, which deactivated him. Unfortunately, that’s not how that’s supposed to work. Metal Sonic can withstand electricity, even being able to wake up from being exposed to it. He can also encase himself inside an electricity field. Ugh. Well IDW Haya has to follow his defeat, so I destroyed him in a way that still makes sense.
So do you remember how, in Sonic Rivals 2, Metal Sonic can claw out his own casing? I noticed Kitsunami can grab ahold of Metal’s limbs. So what if they just forced Metal Haya to claw itself to pieces? Not enough to totally destroy him, but enough to deactivate and get reactivated by Belle later on. Although Surge was punished by being clawed at, Metal Haya likewise got punished himself for being this vicious.
The wound, though... Man I don’t know if that would actually go over well officially. Obviously, blood would be out of the question (despite Sonic X portraying it on Rouge during the SA2 arc), so most of this carbon-based violence would be off-screen, then blocked out by the blob of water from Kit that’s treated like an ice pack.
I decided to have the fight be between Surge and Metal only; no back-up from Kit. I decided this because of how much the original creators love hyping up Surge as this powerful character on her own, someone who’d made Sonic Forces last a lot longer just because the cast would have to stop her, where official concept art shows her beating up Sonic in 5 separate drawings. Must be a tough cookie in the comics, right?
No mention of what Starline was doing? Sorry, this rewrite was all about Surge and Kit’s relationship. Starline’s on-page appearances weren’t even all that important; the only thing you needed to know is that he’s taken control of the robots and he’s reigning now. He wasn’t even developed as a character more than what could be possible, so I focused on the new characters.
But let’s rewind the clock a bit. What happened before?
uhh…
Wow the road to Issue 50 is kinda… boring? So the girls go camping, then the Chaotix see Clutch is back, then we go back to them testing out the pacified Badniks. Riveting~
To get everyone’s minds off the gutter, Amy had the idea of going camping with her new friends. Amy invited Belle and Tangle, who invited Jewel and Whisper.
In the original comic, Whisper left because Mimic escaped, but literally nothing came out of it. She never found him. She was just removed from this plot. So she’s coming.
With Tails’ prototype camping gear inside her trunk, it’s time to head to Forest Ridge Campground. It’s a bit cramped though, but that’s alright. The ranger of the park explains that the area missed its hydration period over the winter after the Metal Virus, so everything’s a lot more flammable.
When preparing the tent, Jewel looks confused at Tails’ instructions: they’re all geometry equations. Whisper quietly takes the instructions, figures out the equations, and starts putting things together much faster than Tangle or Jewel.
Obviously Whisper would know trigonometry. She’s an expert sniper.
Amy’s disappointed that Tails didn’t pack any matches and asks if Belle has anything built-in that could help. After switching through some gears on her fingers, Belle stops when Amy notices she has a magnifying glass. Perhaps using the sun on the glass would help light them a fire. Good thing the sun's still up.
Mr. Tinker’s a genuine idiot for designing a wooden robot to have a lighter. So I'm giving her a magnifying glass in case for that hard-to-spot areas.
Night falls, and the girls are roasting marshmallows. Whisper is quite glad; the only thing she’s been eating were field rations. Jewel sympathizes with her comment and starts talking about the food she can give her, which Whisper appreciates. After conversing about their favorite food, Amy tries segwaying being hungry with being hungry for their destinies: she pulls out her tarot cards for some readings. Tangles squees; she used to do this a lot.
Tarot card reading. Did you know that they’re common practice among Japanese teen girls? Amy was given that trait to show how she’s a regular girl, but that didn’t translate well in the Western parts of the world who saw it as an Amy-special trait of hers. To help spread it being a normal culture in Haya’s world, I made Tangle also remember doing card readings.
And yeah they’re not fortune cards like in the original comic lol
Amy asks everyone what they want before she shuffles her cards. Jewel asks why she’s feeling anxious about the future, Tangle asks how she should focus on her relationship with others, Whisper asks how she can move past her trauma, and Belle wants to know what to do to understand herself.
With each question, Amy shuffles her cards and allows them to pick five cards for their clarity. Jewel’s cards tell her that confidence is just around the corner, and that she should throw away her self-doubt. Tangle has an insecure soul, and that she must let love fill her heart to achieve enlightenment. Whisper’s mind is blocked and disconnected, and she needs compassion to find inner happiness. Belle’s “heart” is also blocked, and that there will be a surprise to give her sudden awareness.
Whisper, Jewel, and Belle are confused as to what the cards mean, but Tangle looks at Whisper and feels comfortably inside herself. Jewel doubts the cards even more and turns tired. I guess everyone can sleep on their fortune for now.
Oh hey maybe it was my small depressive event that made me apathetic to the camping section. This is a great way to foreshadow stuff, especially if you throw away the writing decision to make everyone very depressed. Adding Hope in your storytelling makes the audience Happy
Not Belle though. While she can simulate sleeping by focusing on a rudimentary top-down shooter where you shoot sheep, there really is no healthy benefit for her. Leaning on the log after everyone had gone asleep, she stares at the stars before hearing some rustling. She investigates.
Why did Belle run away in the original comic? Is she stupid?
Belle activates a flashlight and looks closer. Suddenly, a pink-eyed Egg Pawn pops out in surprise. Belle stammers back and hits her head on a rock, deactivating her for some time. The Egg Pawn looks concerned at her limp body.
In the Haya AU, most of the enemies in the Classic Era are organic enemies. This includes Motobugs, so I can’t feature Motobud in IDW Haya. However, from Adventure till Unleashed Eggman only had robots. So who’s the replacement? Well remember back when I wrote that Belle shook an Egg Pawn’s hand in Test Run, causing his eyes to go pink? Well, there he is.~ I’m so proud of him for leaving Eggman’s Tower before it could implode on itself.
Good morning, the forest is on fire. The girls notice Belle and the ranger’s son had gone missing, so Tangle jumps into action. Belle wakes up and spots two mysterious figures before they leave her sight. She notices she’s been dragged to a less dry region of the forest by the Egg Pawn. Seems like the Egg Pawn saved her. She’s about to thank him, but then Tangle arrives. She freaks out at the robot, but then Belle explains that he saved her.
Belle then apologizes for the fire. She had turned on her flashlight for too long and the long exposure might have started a fire. Even Tangle knows that’s impossible to do and calls her out on it, but Belle determines that may have been what happened. Tangle just dismisses it and tells her that they need to find the ranger’s son.
Nice. Well, back at the camp, people are scampering to try and get out of the camp, but it would cause a traffic jam. Amy asks if Whisper has a plan, but her expertise is more tactical rather than logistic. Arguments, arguments, Amy puts a stop to that with her hammer.
Amy could’ve killed those two for no reason. So it's just gonna be a love tap. Love tap.
Jewel notices where everyone is and starts muttering. Making space, making a path, keeping valuable items safe. It seems she’s applying her position as museum curator into a different context. Amy notices and boisterously asks everyone to follow her advice. Children and elderly are placed in safe vehicles, a path is shoveled out to contain the spread and create a foundation…
Most of the stuff from the original comic would happen. They find the ranger’s son, Belle calms him down with a honk on her nose, the boy talks about Surge and Kit starting the forest fire (not yet named), and the three reach the camp. With everyone reconvened, Jewel can now enact her final step by moisturizing the ground to avoid any spreading of fire via undergrowth. Unfortunately, the fire killed the affecting plans, but it thankfully didn’t spread further down the valley thanks to Jewel’s help.
Everyone in the camp is very grateful for Jewel’s leadership; she could’ve been one in another timeline. Jewel is speechless to the praise, but then thanks everyone. When the crowd has settled, Tangle comes up to Jewel with Whisper in tow. She’s shy to ask, so Tangle asks it for her. Basically, she’s asking if Jewel could be their leader in this new group they’re having with Lanolin. She doesn’t have to do much, but she could aid in logistics. It’s a tough choice, so Jewel will think about it. Whisper smiles.
Back at the lab, Tails figured out that Belle has a special ability to overwrite Eggman’s robots so they become pacified. They’ll have to test this out with other robots, but this could mean great things. Outside, Tangle and Amy recount the adventure to Haya. Tangle then gets on his bike to meet with Whisper.
What a wild ride. Now what about the Chaotix issue?
We’re skipping the Chaotix issue.
What the hell, why???
I have no problems with its narrative.
Oh alright, fine, but can I mention some problems with it?
…
Rough and Tumble are working for a boss again; Clutch. Ignore the times they promised not to work with others.
Forget him. Forget all of them! We don’t need a boss or a team!
That’s right! We work better alone!
Alone together forever!
You said it!
That’s it, bro… No more teaming up with anyone but each other.
Rough & Tumble forever, bro…
It would be really cool if they kept that promise. But then, there’d be no issue where Clutch appears. Not Clutch! He was so important in the grand scheme of things! Yeegh. Have him appear later. Would justify his sudden amassing of resources.
So time has passed, and Belle led a small group of robots to the lab’s location. Tails and Haya are hiding, but Tails is asking to send the signal. The smart fox copied Belle’s Pacify data on his Miles Electric, which Belle is holding onto. She activates the signal, then Tails pulls away the blanket hiding Haya. As promised, the pacified robots don’t care Haya is there anymore. How swell.
It’s night, and Haya’s awoken by the Egg Pawn trying to push open the door. That’s weird. Haya taps them to see what’s up, but he turns around to try and smack Haya. He, of course, dodges, but is confused as to what’s happening. Tails wakes up to the commotion before they also see Belle under control. They’re under a control signal, much stronger than the Pacify signal Belle has. Haya will have to fend the two off while Tails goes into storage to find something to fix this.
Long scuffle. After that, Tails arrives with a spare Zeti Zapper and bumps it on Belle’s back. A large electronic un-interference causes her to fall down. Dead silence, with only the sounds of recalibrating clicks and whrrs coming out of Belle.
Tails asks if she’s okay, and she just says yes. It’s with a much more neutral, deeper voice. Haya comments on this, but Belle droops her eyes. Tails then realizes: Belle’s not just happy anymore, which is where he starts piecing things together.
Belle was built with a sentient AI. Mr. Tinker then placed a command on top of that for her to be a positive daughter to him. When the beacon signal was activated in her brain, it overwrote her original command. With the Zeti Zapper now erasing that command, all that there is left is the sentience. It kind of hurts, but it allows her to think straight for once.
Finally.
She needs to go to Dr. Eggman. Tails asks for the coordinates of the signal, and Belle quickly remembers to head south. But first, they have to deactivate the Egg Pawn. A calculated cut of a wire to deactivate him later, and Belle opens the door impatiently. Of course, this will be Eggman territory, so Tails is packing some weapons for the trip. While walking, Tails is worried about Belle’s mood, but she reassures him that this is the most calm she’s felt her entire life.
On their way to the signal, a group of farmers are blocked by the walking robots. One farmer, Gala the Hound, threatens to use her Wispon, but everyone is then whisked away from danger by Haya. Belle adds that this was really stupid of Gala to do so, and Tails is starting to get enough of her attitude.
He tells Belle that he understands she has just allowed to have negative emotions for the first time in her life, but that's no reason for her to start insulting others. She's going to hurt others. Belle looks back and sees Tails pleading, and Haya looks with masked impatience. She thinks, then asks what she should do, but going “should” is not the right way of going at it, Haya responds. It’s could. Sentience comes with a price, but in exchange you can choose.
...Those words have made Belle remember that question she asked herself back on the Tornado: Follow Mr. Tinker, or follow Dr. Eggman. She’s finally made her decision, and she smiles–a genuine one. She thanks the two, then continues going down the path of the beacon. Tails asks why she still wants to head there, but Belle responds it’s for a different reason now.
You’ve already made a difference, Belle. All the little wins, the good memories between the hard times, the friends we find… those are real. Nobody can take that away. We’ll keep moving forward, together.
Haya would let Belle figure this out on her own. Also you might have seen I've foregone Mr. Tinker's note. I found that pretty stupid and relied heavily on Mr. Tinker. With Belle's programming to be a good daughter to Mr. Tinker gone, Belle has become her own person, and she can choose what to do on her own now.
Welcome to the finale! As a result, a lot of continuing plotlines in IDW Haya will not continue. When the current arcs end, or when IDW dies, then stuff here will continue.
Haya, Tails, and Belle enter Eggperial City. The borders are seen to grow, with plantlife and grass being converted into pavement and streetlamps. Haya now has a reason to put a stop to this. Jumping on top of a building, they see the central tower and witness some big boom kabooms on the central tower. Dr. Starline is fighting the Egg Emperor, piloted by Dr. Eggman.
While everyone is discussing on how to access the tower, Belle looks down on the street and notices the wrecked form of Metal Haya. Perhaps he has administrative access. She jumps down, but tells the others to come up with other plans. Before Haya can get a word in, he’s then shot away by a large electrical beam. Tails is then grabbed by a flurry of watery limbs and is introduced to Kit.
There’s no reason Belle would be sympathetic to Metal Sonic, so her reason for trying to activate him is more selfish now. I’ve omitted the argument the two have about Metal Haya’s deweaponization because... they never did so in this comic in the first place. And also, in the original comic, Sonic’s deflecting blame to Tails. That’s not what he does at all.
Um… You had me repair him after the whole Neo Metal takeover thing, remember?
That was back when we thought Eggman was done and didn’t know about Starline! Plus, you de-weaponized him!
He still has his metal claws and a turbine torso.
My point is–
Geez, blame him for all of your previous mistakes too while you’re at it, Sonic.
Haya is burst on a platform railing by someone he’s never met before. Haya tries asking for her name, but she just keeps trying to blast him with her electric bat. Haya gets close and kicks her in the face and asks once more. Incapacitated for a short while, she introduces herself as Surge the Tenrec. After she’s done that, Haya asks her to please step aside; there’s a nature-eating city currently growing, and he’s trying to stop that.
Surge is offended that Haya is ignoring her, and she continues with the offense.
I’m omitting Surge’s speech here.
Oh, I know who you are. It’s all I know, really. And that’s the problem. I am your fault. Starline? Eggman? Sure, they’re part of this and they’ll get theirs, but it really comes down to you. If you had just taken them out, I wouldn’t have been made! Or if that goes against your precious “moral code,” you could’ve just rolled over and quit! But no! You keep on fighting! You keep on giving idiots the freedom to repeat their awful mistakes! And it just keeps on going and going and going! And the whole world loves you for it. So I’m ending it. All of it. You, the docs, the world. It’s what you all deserve.
While a critique of IDW Sonic’s personality, this is dialogue coming out of Surge, a villain and also someone who’d have no idea about Sonic’s moral code and the fact that he lets villains go. Who told her about this? Starline? The only thing he brainwashed into Surge was that she wanted to destroy Sonic.
You hate Sonic. You want to destroy Sonic.
I hate Sonic. I want to destroy Sonic.
The entire point of Imposter Syndrome is Surge and Kitsunami angsting over not knowing why they want to kill Sonic, but that they were brainwashed to do so by Starline. In the end, they want to torch the future as they have no past.
Why… do I want to do this? Any of this? I… haven’t even met Sonic. I don’t… think I have…?
Do you want to destroy him still?
Yeah… But… why? Do you?
I want whatever you want.
But why?!
…I don’t know…
Now? *sniff* Now?! We burn it all down! Sonic! Eggman! Every idiot that follows either of them! We end it all! No more heroes! Villain! Nothing! If we don’t get a past, they don’t get a future!
So why the heck does Surge suddenly have a specific reason to destroy Sonic instead of everyone? This is not a case of change of writers either as it’s been the same person writing her.
This is said to be introductory-writing by the writer himself. It shouldn’t be that hard to keep it consistent.
This is something I failed to realize in my early sketch-up of Haya’s version of Issue 50. Now, I forgo the speech entirely and have Surge start smacking it down on Haya immediately. She wants to torch the world, right? Then she should stop the speech and get right to it! The speech only turned her into a strawman without any logic or reason behind it, and the narrative doesn’t indicate that Sonic will reflect on it, so why include it?
Dr. Eggman vs. Starline remains the same. Starline is still desperate for Eggman’s approval, he enters the Super Eggrobo, and a clash between the two happens. Anyway, it’s Tails vs. Kit. Tails is using his Tails Guard to dodge any wayward water and tactically places some Chu Bombs. After leading Kit around, he activates the bombs causing all of Kit’s water to be scattered on the field. Phew. What Tails didn’t expect is the water starts to retreat back into Kit’s pack, and some of it caught onto Tails, dragging him towards Kit’s side. Tails is scrambling, starts panicking, then is held high up by Kit as he prepares to slam down onto Tails.
Tails then sees the backpack Kit is wearing. He grabs his Cure Gun and aims it straight at the window of the pack. Nailing the shot, Kit is distraught as his water stops working and gets in a fetal position. Well atleast the threat is done for, so Tails starts talking to Kit.
Despite how wholesome the original fight looked, it was just Tails manipulating Kit. No fight, snoore. So I'm having them fight.
Back at Surge and Haya, the building they’re in has damaged severely. Eggman decals scratched out, tapestry untapestried, and a spot of fire. Haya is looking annoyed as Surge is breathing heavily. Surge dashes ahead at Haya, but he performs a limbo, grabs Surge by the sides, then throws her over the edge. Haya asks if she’s calmed down.
Yeah, I’ve gotten used to those. I’ve also fought a few folks with the whole “The world wronged me so I’m going to destroy the world” shtick.
Sonic here is calling Surge’s pain a “schtick”, a style of performance, an act, fake. He’s saying that Surge isn’t special, her pain isn’t special. That’s not Sonic, geez dude.
Surge breaths for a moment, unable to come up with an answer. Haya cheekily calls the silent answer a “yes” then jumps to her level. Surge yells that she’ll destroy him
Huff… I’ll… I’ll destroy you!
No can do.
You’ve already hurt me! You, Eggman, Starline... Just get it over with or leave!
This building is crumbling
End me!
Look, just grab my hand and we can both get out.
Surge stands up on her on, stares coldly at Haya, then exits the building.
I don’t know your full story so I can’t really judge, but I can’t let you hurt anyone.
So end it!
Nope. I’d rather give you a chance to rebound.
You can’t be this naive.
I like to keep it simple. I live for the moment. I want to see the world, find all its thrills and adventures, and enjoy them. I want everyone to have the freedom to do that, too. And you wouldn’t get the opportunity if I took that chance away from you. I’ve made peace with enough enemies to know there is a better way. So I’m willing to chalk this up to “a rocky start” and let us have a do-over if you will.
He didn't keep it simple.
God, Jesus, Issue 50. Okay, I believe this critique has been repeated multiple times, but I have to write it in anyway to justify my changes present.
This is wrong, both for Sonic and somewhat for Surge. First, the framing of Sonic’s speech has him morally grandstanding high over Surge, who’s cast down into the dark. Rays of light shine down on Sonic as he’s literally presented as being holier than thou. You’d think this would be a self-aware satire of Sonic’s writing in the comics, but I doubt there’s any self-awareness present. Flynn even deconfirmed that this is from Surge’s perspective.
His big monologue to Surge is him trying to defuse the fight between them, like, let’s back it up a step. In Sonic 50, you can’t look at it from Surge’s perspective because Sonic doesn’t know it.
Second, Sonic wouldn’t explain his outlook and values to anyone out of the ordinary. His actions speak for him. Surge also wouldn’t start having a discussion with him. She’s all “kill Sonic, kill Eggman, burn it all down! We don’t have a past? You don’t get a future!” I don’t feel there’s a deep-layered rationale behind Surge’s hate for Sonic based on the Imposter Syndrome mini-series.
It’s also funny how Sonic here gives equal importance to Eggman and Starline. As far as several quotes are concerned, his opinion on Starline isn’t that high.
I want to hear it from you, fanboy. Where is Eggman? What are you two planning?
Are we okay with [Eggman tossing away Starline]…?
The guy brought Eggman back to his old self and tried to blow me and Silver up. Yeah, we’re okay with that.
Heck, Issue 36, for all everyone knew (including Sonic), Starline died inside the avalanche and nobody cared. Starline is not part of Sonic’s moral dilemma.
Thirdly, Sonic also didn’t make peace with his enemies. That’s a blatant lie because the only enemy Sonic has made peace with is Blaze, everyone else reformed out of their own choices or thanks to Amy’s influence. Sonic expects Surge to just automatically “make peace” with him after that one occassion?
Fourthly, “I’m willing to chalk this up to ‘a rocky start’ and let us have a do-over if you will” is so patronizing it hurts, as if he has any authority on Surge’s choices.
“I’m willing”, how generous of you, King Sonic.
And finally, Sonic’s not being merciful at all to Eggman. In Sonic 1, Sonic can attack Eggman and watch him fall down in his exploding Egg Mobile, in Sonic CD’s bad ending he throws a rock to cause the Egg Mobile to explode, in Sonic Battle he mocks Eggman’s “new dance” as he’s electrocuted by Cream, in Sonic Unleashed he throws Eggman close to the lava, in Sonic Lost World he sabotages Eggman’s jetpack and watches him fall down, and in Sonic Mania he leaves Eggman behind in the collapsing Titanic Monarch. This is also not mentioning the amount of times he leaves Eggman for dead, such as in the exploding Death Egg in Sonic 2, him being sucked into a black hole in Sonic Colors, or any gruesome ones like cutting him with turbines in Sonic Mania.
Sonic's not pacifistic towards Eggman. His attitude towards him is “if he dies, he dies.” He doesn’t care about him.
If, by this block of “Sonic doesn’t care about Eggman’s welfare” examples you managed to twist my text into “So you want Sonic to butcher his enemies?”, I’m surprised you’re not tricked by peekaboos anymore.
[Sonic’s] point of view is very simple and idealized, but it’s also a children’s fantasy, you know. We’re not going to be able to answer these high-level moral questions that humanity has been grappling with since we had an understanding of morality to begin with, in a Sonic book. This is introductory level. And if you’re in your 20s or 30s or 40s and you don’t find this surface-level approach fully satisfying… go read adult material. Go read stuff that does delve into that and does try to tackle it, does something smarter. This is- this is not something smarter.
Unfortunately, the Sonic franchise has not really grown up with us older folk.
It’s okay to have entry- introductory-level ideas to larger concepts
Yeah
It is okay to introduce larger, broader approaches to these ideas without solutions so that, you know, the kids can teethen themselves on this and then move on to deeper, harder, hitting stuff.
In hindsight, the Metal Virus was just misery porn really.
Belle has managed to activate Metal Haya by using herself as a router. That way, the control signal will also be blocked. Metal Haya activates, but badly damaged. His connection to the Eggnet allows him to know Eggman’s location, but he can’t move properly so he’ll need Belle’s support while he gives directions.
Surge and Haya reach the outside. Haya looks at some of the buildings to possibly bounce off of before Surge starts blasting him again. She does, and he sprints off. As they jump from building to building, Tails and Kit see the damage they’re enacting throughout the city. Kit coldly cheers Surge on, disturbing Tails.
That’s the real problem with giving people a choice. You can’t stop them from making the wrong ones.
This is a disgusting sentiment Sonic has about choices. Sonic’s all about giving you a choice, but will arbitrarily call your choice “wrong” after the fact. The 50th issue of anything serves as a good cornerstone, and this has unintentionally showcased everything wrong with IDW Sonic. Unappealing art, overly wordy characters, and out-of-character writing.
The mechs continue fighting, they fly through a ton of buildings, the multi-colored districts as even Eggman’s robots can’t stop their rampage. With this wild flying around, quakes appear all throughout the city. Metal wants to go to where the destruction is happening, but Belle is not having it; they’re not getting destroyed. She suggests heading to higher ground, and the only closest place there is the central tower.
The mech fight then conflicts with Surge and Haya. SHING! The hedgehog and tenrec drill through both the EggRobo and Egg Emperor respectively. The mechs fall down, leaving behind another boom of destruction. However, Eggperial City’s self-healing capabilities causes the mechs to be fixed up. The Fake Chaos Emerald accents surrounding both mechs results in a much higher boost of power, and the two go at it again.
Much stronger, much faster, Starline rips off a building off of its support and throws it at Eggman. Eggman retaliates. As buildings fly left and right, Haya and Surge jump from shooting wall to wall, fighting eachother as the mid-air thrill surrounds the both of them. Haya remembers to destroy the central tower again and gets a plan.
Getting the attention of Dr. Eggman by annoying him, he gets the doctor to throw a building straight at him. Haya dodges, causing the building to cleave the side of the central tower clean off. Eggman is infuriated that he's been tricked.
Haya didn’t think about other with this plan, as it turns out Belle and Metal are also on top of the tower. She fears for her life as the tower’s stem starts crumbling in on itself. She hugs tightly on Metal Haya as the building caves in and falls.
Without the central tower to keep everything together, sparks and explosions befall throughout Eggperial City. Everything is falling apart and structural support from underground is giving way. The underground minerals Eggperial City took caused a massive underground cave to form, in which Eggperial City is caving itself in on.
Tails grabs Kit tightly and flies away from the doomed city. He narrowly dodges buildings flying their way into the central point of the cave-in. As more buildings fly their way, Haya and Surge are jumping from wreckage to wreckage, but they’re forced to dash through some wreckage to even get through. Both are wounded, but fortunately make it to the city outskirts.
With the mechs, they’re being pelted by oncoming building traffic. Some of the mechs lose their limbs, and Eggman evacuates out of the Egg Emperor with his Egg Mobile. Unfortunately for Starline, he was much closer to the center of the city, so he suffers most of the brunt. Most of the EggRobo’s functionalities start failing, but he manages to just reach the edge of the city before it falls into the deep dark abyss underneath.
On the Egg Mobile, Eggman curses Haya that he’ll pay for this. After cursing him out, he looks at the limbless EggRobo and sees Starline trying to punch out of the cockpit. Eggman leaves him to die and flies off.
With all of its energy drained, the EggRobo can’t activate its ejection functionality. Starline desperately tries using the Tri-Core to punch, kick, anything, just to break out of the vehicle. It seems this newer model can withstand Power Cores. He yells to be let out, demands to be let out.
Surge, wounded, approaches the mech. “Hey Doc.” Starline recognizes that it’s Surge and asks to be let out. When she doesn’t respond, Starline asks again. He starts slamming the controls, he angrily yells at Surge, he trashes around at everything just to have Surge release him. Surge stares at Kit, remembering the pain they suffered under him, and she presses her foot on the mech’s base.
Haya tries stopping her, but he’s too wounded to stop her, not now. Surge applies pressure to her push, and the ground gives out as the EggRobo starts sinking. All restraint is torn off of Starline as his blazing words tries clawing at Surge with a layer of unrestraint unheard of. These words continue as the EggRobo sinks and rolls into the dark abyss. Echoes of razor-sharp madness are heard throughout the darkness until it can’t be heard anymore.
“Kluns, why is Starline’s death satisfying now? It’s not supposed to be satisfying” Literally what are you talking about
Starline’s death is an undignified one. Rubble fell on him. The rubble didn’t give both him and Eggman any agency, Surge and Kit couldn’t take out their anger on their abuser, and his gruesome death after going through a mental breakdown is summed up by Sonic as a “Big oof.”
I saw it myself. Dr. Starline is… no more.
Big oof.
What utter disrespect to the character. Despite what you may think of his inclusion, he had a build-up lasting more than 3 years, had 2 whole mini-series about him. He was essentially the main villain of IDW Sonic, and this is how he’s treated at the end. Naturally, this treatment of his character doesn’t come from nowhere.
“In Operation: Remaster, what was the long-term planning in replacing heroes? After killing Sonic, was Surge meant to pretend to be your nemesis or something?”
I don’t think he really thought it all the way through.
…Because Eggman is the better villain.
So how is that meant to be a challenge for Eggman anyway when he is able to defeat him that easily, like, how is that meant to show anything off about Eggman that we couldn’t get or benefit from Eggman doing that to the protagonist?
Because, you see, Starline built up to this point. He goes through multiple plans, he accounts for so many variables, he gets into the metacontextual of the story so that, when he is finally in this precipice of “look at how far he’s come, how much work he’s put into it” to get to this point, and then Eggman is able to counter and crush him. You see just how much of a threat Eggman is. Someone who is this close to him, someone who understands him that deeply, someone who can make that big of a play against him, is still not enough.
“So, what are Starline’s favorite flowers?”
Well, I think it’s pretty obvious given that he’s pushing up daisies! NNNRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!
The BumbleKast quote above was made about a week after Starline’s death was released. It’s clear Starline wasn’t thought highly of, both in Sonic’s world and by the writer himself. This also contradicts Sonic’s schpiel about everyone deserving a second chance; if Sonic actually practiced that principle, he’d logically be a little disappointed someone would never get the chance to reform. As far as Sonic knew at the time, Starline was an Eggman fanboy way in over his head. Show some compassion you said you had back in Issue 12.
We’re compassionate, not stupid.
Belle is also visibly hurt from seeing his death. She even called him as the place was falling apart. True, she didn’t like him, but she didn’t want him crushed to death. Haya would be a bit more respectful to Belle, empathetically going “Sorry you had to see that” or staying quiet.
The hell was up with his Issue 50 speech to Surge then if Sonic could only give a meme as Starline's epitaph? Was he just talking Surge down, putting her in her place, dismissing her?
But the panel was all the fault of Adam Bryce Thomas, according to Ian Flynn.
“Starline ruined Belle’s life by seeing him dying.”
[dramatic] It was horrid.
“What bothers me is Sonic saying 'Big oof' to her when it should’ve been 'Sorry you had to see that.'”
Yeah maybe that would’ve been another approach to it. Thing is, I was talking to Adam about this. The scene in the script is, you see Sonic kind of cringe at the realization of what happened, and Adam preferred to stage it so that there was more of a focus on Belle’s reaction, he wasn’t thinking so much on what Sonic needed. And when
Communicate with the artist if they don’t follow the intention of the script. You don’t get to blast him on your podcast after the fact.
Surge stares back at group. She then asks for Kit to be let go, and Tails complies. Kit rushes to Surge’s side before she starts again. She’s realized, throughout this fight, that Haya’s been a good sport, so she’ll be one too.
Eggman Base Sigma. Be there within a week. Arrive only with you and your fox buddy. If they don’t arrive, they’ll start tearing away everything they have ever loved. They then leave, with a rematch soon on the horizon.
As the cool wind blows, and the sun starts coming up, Tails starts asking where Belle is…
Belle and everyone else that fell into the pit are all because of Haya's actions. The original issue pointed out problems with the main character's morality, but that's all pointed out via dialogue and coming out of a villain (Surge). In this version, it points out the problems with his actions. He runs on instinct, didn't think ahead, and it has now caused one of his friends to be likely doomed under there forever.
Belle will not appreciate this.
And that's the end of the rewrite. I told you I promised to end it after Eggperial City has been destroyed. Of course, this leads to a lot of questions.
The longer Eggperial City was allowed to stand, the longer it could suck up nature. I'm not gonna have that city be left standing while everyone else leaves to go beat up the mentally ill cyborgs (Surge and Kit). Dump that city to Bikini Bottom!
This also means that Surge doesn't have the Dynamo Cage to help her. I want to establish that Surge can take on Haya without the need of some special ability. For a pretty long time, people love propping up Surge as a very strong character. Oooh how strong. Oh, she needed to steal Eggman tech to be stronger in Issue 52. Oh, she tripped on some bolts in Issue 54. Oh, she had a bucket thrown on her head in the same issue. Oh, she got grabbed by Eggman by the ponytail and thrown on the ground in Issue 55. Oh, she had her butt booped by Sonic in the same issue. Oh, she had a mental breakdown when she was given the opportunity to kill Sonic and Eggman in the same issue. Oh, she passed out by using her powers in Issue 56. Oh, they're revealed to just be eating rotting rations in Issue 67.
So... Surge is strong, eh? People are saying that the Dynamo Cage is supposed to symbolize drug addiction and?? what???
And the other characters won't also be here too! And there won't be a random plot point of Rouge finding an echidna artifact in the city!
But this also means that Tangle won't haphazardly call their team the Diamond Cutters, activating Whisper's trauma for no reason other than drama and demolishing Tangle's character to the fanbase! Let's talk about that.
The drama with Tangle haphazardly picking the team name “Diamond Cutters”, knowing Whisper is not comfortable with it, is very forced. It’s also inconsistent with Tangle’s character arc in the Whisper & Tangle mini-series, where she learned to be more considerate of Whisper.
If you can’t confront it right now… I understand. But the more you can share, the more I can help you. Please…
Afterward, Tangle buries her face in tears while Whisper is the one who has the tell the group that she’s been a bad teammate serves as a terrible precedent for letting Whisper allow Tangle to break her privacy without her consent. That’s abusive. If Haya IDW has to parallel the implied romantic relationship between the two, there must not be an abusive side in the relationship.
As “Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin’s team name is Diamond Cutters” is the basic plot beat, I can change the circumstances behind the creation of the team name. Obviously, Whisper must be the only one to create the team name. She must be the only one to believe it will honor their old teammate’s cause to continue using the name, instead of having her rationalize it after it’s been thrust upon her.
Whoa. Wh-what are those?
That… is what happened to the first Diamond Cutters.
Having not enough taking the Diamond Cutters name, Tangle resorts to directly mentioning that Whisper’s team died from the Shadow Androids, just to further drive in Whisper’s trauma. This exchange doesn't happen at all in the rewrite, but I should still comment on it for comparison purposes.
Oh the suspense! What will their rematch entail? How will Belle, Metal Haya, Orbot, and Cubot make it out of that pit? And this may be the end of Dr. Starline!
