Hello! This is a special section of the site where we recap IDW Haya in the form of a rewrite/critique of the original IDW Sonic. This section is quite a bit immersion-breaking, so if you're not into that, I suggest closing your eyes, looking at the other pages, and not complain.
Now then. "Why the rewrite? IDW Sonic is written well, right?" Well there are some reasons.
First of all, certain Haya games have been rewritten from the original Sonic games, so I have to keep that in mind. And second, IDW Sonic is pretty inconsistent... I will go over those small things via these 'godpattern'-esque addendum boxes. Of course, you can checkmark that box above to hide all of it.
Largely, the IDW Sonic comic series displays abusive traits and behavior from characters that the narrative portrays as harmless, misunderstood, or justified in worse cases. The narrative fails as displaying this behavior, which has caused the larger fanbase to defend those actions.
For now, the rewrite will end after the destruction of Eggperial City. I'd love getting into Lanolin's abusive behavior in later arcs, but that has yet to be paid off.
With that out of the way, please keep in mind that this critique is no grounds to start harassing the original creators, nor isn't me explaining how wrong you are for pulling something positive out of it. This document is not intended to reach IDW staff; someone else must've done it or the staff went out of their way to find this (in which case: nice). Don't campaign for the removal of this page, nor use this page to campaign removing any of the writers as I just want to see improvements rather than removals.
as someone who actually does work on the IDW Sonic comics now, you guys really gotta stop dogpiling people whenever they criticize the comic or say something negative about it
Click on any of the chapters to start reading. This is gonna a long page, after all...
Oh right the general changes
A pretty famous quote often used by the characters is “Long time no see.” It’s a way to establish a time of passage between the games, and that everyone has gone off to do their own thing, only teaming up together in large adventures such as the games. This is a pretty consistent thing I want to establish, and by creating this permanent hub where everyone can see eachother at all times, this trend is broken.
Furthermore, the idea of a Restoration is kind of boring to Haya. He’s a free soul that happens to fall into trouble he wants to solve. Doing missions and returning to the same location would not be in his spirit. You want him to have a paycheck too, give him a suit and tie and sell you the Haya Bible? No!
What is the contrast between the two, are the two destined to clash forever, can the two co-exist? Of course not every story here quite fits that apt description, but it’s felt throughout the world. This means that there'd be a lot of dialogue removed where people want Haya to kill Eggman. Oh no...
Also I can flippantly change the theming from “Sonic’s morality” to “Science vs. Nature” because Ian Flynn himself admitted that the comic isn’t trying to have a balanced moral debate about the former.
…because at the end of the day, when you’re having a discussion like [Sonic’s morality], or having a thematic discussion like that, what you end up on is the one that’s considered the correct position, especially if the one that you end on doesn’t get countered in any way. And, while I would argue the [Metal Virus arc] itself should be a counter, when we get to the end of, I believe, #44, Sonic reflects on everything and still just decides to say “I’m standing by my positions instead of getting into my fear.” Like, I get that they’re supposed to be counterarguments, but there are supposed to be two sides of that argument. But when one basically gets a page, and the other basically gets the entire half of the chapter and that half of the chapter is never given a direct counterargument, how is that not undercutting?
I can see where you’re coming from, but at the same time, this book is not meant to be a balanced moral debate.
[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.
I dunno, if you make certain morals and ethical questions the foundation of your narrative, there should be a level of care put into it. You can’t just make the discussion one-sided and allow everyone to accept it because it’s a children’s book. Kids are surprisingly smart, and there have been children’s media that treat moral topics with tact and respect.
All I want here is competent characterization.
It’s been a month since Eggman’s harrowing take-over of the world. While everyone is anticipating his next attack, Haya notices a town in trouble: Vista View.
Vista View is based on a giant cake. Long ago, a great legend told of invaders being sent away by a mighty warrior, and that’s why they now hold an annual cake feast. Although, this legend was likely made up to justify eating a lot of cake.
So yeah the locations will be somewhat redesigned. If you haven’t noticed, the locations in IDW Sonic are sorely lacking in the visual department. For gods sake, Vista View looks like an isekai starting town; some town surrounded by a circular stone wall.
I want each location to look like a good location to run around in a potential game, with striking colors giving the audience a memorable scene.
Nearly getting smashed by one of the robots, Tails swoops in to save Haya at the last moment. After destroying the invaders, Tails comments on the amount of attacks that have happened recently. While Eggman’s organic troops returned to dormancy, the robot squadron started acting up, coordinated even. Haya suspects Eggman, but Tails says Eggman would’ve announced his return in a pompous way. Tails stays in Vista View to help with the town’s repairs, while Haya continues his path.
The comics seem to have this belief that Tails doesn’t have this high belief in his idol, and that’s why he helps him, as if he doesn’t help him beyond that fact.
Could you not risk your life for five minutes?
They’re almost out! C’mon, Tails! Hurry up!
Oh ye of little faith...
If you want to point to Sonic Colors writing (why), the two exchanged blows equally without one having to resort to using bedroom eyes.
After smashing a Death Crab at the village of Riverside, Amy appears to land the finishing blow. After throwing banter with eachother due to not having seen eachother for awhile, they’re notified by a local resident, Lanolin, that more troops are arriving. While Haya smashes any incoming troops, Amy coordinates the residents to rally together to shoot any robots that manage to bypass Haya.
Riverside Zone, as indicated by its name, is a small village close to a river. The buildings are modeled after water waves, with its clock tower being powered by a streaming body of water from above. The biggest family there is a group of farmer sheep responsible for tending to a large majority of the village’s crops. As indicated by the visual there, the founder of Riverside is a sheep wearing a cowbell, a long-lasting heirloom in the family.
Trusting the residents to defend themselves without her assistance, Amy joins Haya on the front lines to hammer any troops with her Piko Piko Hammer. The two then bounce ideas off of eachother, naming suspects behind any of these invasions, somehow managing to think up a new villain along with their entire backstory in the end.
Do you know who's responsible for this?
Don't care, but we can speculate!
Well it's someone who knows how to command Eggman's robots!
Must be smart.
Probably a secret disciple under him...
And they're vengeful, now that he's gone.
Would they be wearing a fake moustache?
Obviously! They wouldn't be Eggman's disciple without it.
...
Bahaha!
Haya and Amy finish off the Blowfish Transporter with their Croquette Bomber duo move.
Fun fact: “Croquette Bomber” is very similar to Archie Sonic’s Issue 259 “Croquet Special”. Another Archie idea passed through…
After finishing off the troops, Haya continues on ahead to Barricade Town and joins in with Knuckles.
Barricade Town resembles a cereal bowl. At night, the lights, in combination with the shiny porcelain, create a beautiful but homely feeling. The cereals they use are made from the same grain in the neighboring Riverside.
Scaling over its namesake, they find out the town’s been overrun by the duo Rough and Tumble the Skunks. Although they’re tough for the residents, they’re no match for Haya and Knuckles. After effortlessly beating the two up, they’re locked up in jail. Somewhere else, a mysterious person has been monitoring Haya's every move. Noticing Knuckles isn’t guarding the Master Emerald, he sets his sights on procuring the gem.
Sonic in the comics mentions Rough and Tumble being worse than the Hooligans, a group in Archie Sonic consisting of Fang, Bean, and Bark. As you've seen with "Croquette Bomber", this repeated insistence of forcing Archie ideas into IDW/Game canon will continue with Flynn for the foreseeable future.
Haya continues on ahead. It’s been a pretty busy day and it’s already sunset.
Sonic’s doing a lot of thinking here, a LOT of thinking. A lot of it will be omitted because there’s no reason to have this amount of thinking.
Entering Spiral Hill Village, Haya notices a lot of fire spewing from the village center. He is met with the sight of a familiar friend fighting alongside an… unfamiliar friend. Using her stretchy tail, Tangle launches Blaze in the air to incinerate any robots both in the air and on the ground.
With Tangle, there aren't a ton of female roles within the Sonic franchise. Off the top of your head, I always think of Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow first. Beyond that, you've got Amy, who's somewhat active yet is all over the place. Rouge is competent but has that odd sex appeal for a cartoon bat. Cream is like a six-year-old who isn't supposed to get involved, so the singular kick-butt female character is Blaze, and she's awesome! But she has the universe problem of being from an entirely different dimension and you have to use the MacGuffins to bring her over and why she's making the trip and so on. So, let's have a character that can easily go on Sonic adventures and be cool.
Tangle was invented to circumvent the issue of Blaze living in another dimension, and yet Tangle was introduced in the same issue where Blaze traveled on over to Sonic’s dimension. Also, way to go undermining the characters you’re writing for. Despite that comment of his, Amy is then written by Flynn as much more of a capable leader too (until Jewel arrives to take over that role).
Tangle doesn’t even go on many Sonic adventures, and the ones she does take part in either have her removed (Metal Virus), incapacitated (Zeti Hunt), or physically unable to do anything (Eggperial City).
I’m having Blaze and Tangle work with eachother before Haya arrives. You want that “kick-butt” action? Throw Haya deep in the middle of it. It also helps with her character development in Sonic Rush where Blaze learned to open herself up to people, so to see her make friends with someone not already part of Haya’s friend group is really encouraging of her.
Previously, Blaze couldn’t reach the giant robotic Buzz Bomber transporter hanging above the sky, even with Tangle’s slingshotting. With Haya now here, Blaze can throw him into the transporter, blowing it up from the inside. Blaze then redirects the burning Buzz Bomber to land outside of the village.
After the attack, everyone has time to talk, so Blaze introduces Tangle to Haya. Blaze tells Haya that she was sent here by the Sol Emeralds for a reason. Haya suspects more is coming, so Blaze promises to stay until that reason is made clear to her.
In the game "Haya Forces", Eggman took over more than just Haya's world. Blaze was involved, so she would already know.
Haya is notified by the Chaotix being tipped off about Eggman’s whereabouts. Arriving at Windmill Hill, Haya is met with Dr. Eggman! …Or rather, Mr. Tinker as he so calls himself. After the events of Haya Forces, the Phantom Ruby sent Eggman to Windmill Hill, scrambling his mind in the process. Haya doesn’t buy this at all.
Eggman staying well-behaved sounds about as possible as chili dogs raining from the sky
I should also help you recognize that I changed the name "Windmill Village" to "Windmill Hill". For one: it rhymes, and two: there's already a Windmill Village in Sonic Rush Adventure. Having the same name pop up would just be confusing, so Windmill Hill.
Espio himself also doesn’t believe it, but Vector and Charmy believe Eggman has turned good. Even the village elder corroborates their statement, noting Mr. Tinker’s help and being a force of good. Haya doesn’t give it much thought and simply asks Vector and Charmy to watch over Mr. Tinker in case he turns bad, since they believe he’s gone good. After wiping up some more invading robots, Mr. Tinker invites Haya to the eventual completion of Eggman Land. Haya turns back and sees Shadow about to attack Mr. Tinker.
If this were a full rewrite, following plot beats be damned, I’d have Mr. Tinker slowly revert back to his Eggman persona by himself. He can still tinker with machines, so his experiences haven’t been fully rewritten. At its core, Eggman is someone who believes he deserves to rule the world, and having that slowly unravel by having him experience microaggression (a robot would serve drinks faster) after microaggression (I can rule this village better than the elder) serves as a good introduction on the kind of person Eggman is. After taking over the village, Haya arrives, battles him, and his “first” battle with Haya would finally return all of Eggman’s memories.
New readers who have never seen the games are already acquainted with the hero types and why they want to save the world, but knowing why the villain does what he does is possibly even more important. The villain causes conflict, but why are they the cause of conflict?
Shadow’s joined with Rouge. Haya tries corroborating that Eggman’s completely lost his memory, but Shadow’s having none of that, continuing to proceed to Mr. Tinker. Haya then gets the plan to distract Shadow, smacking him before battling him away from the village. Rouge reveals she was the one to tip off the Chaotix.
Meanwhile, Haya argues against Shadow during the race. While he himself is pretty suspicious of his new persona, Eggman’s helping the villagers, and he’s staying in that village until he can fully prove himself reformed. Shadow’s impressed Haya is giving him mercy, even after the many attempts on his life, whereas Haya rebutts that Shadow has done the same thing to him. It’d be a bit unfair to make Shadow the exception.
Haya doesn’t like a lot of things. Being unfair is one of them.
I can’t have Haya provide examples of the ARK and Black Arms. The former is because the writing itself states that he’s contradicting himself, and Sonic is wrong when it comes to him aiding in the Black Arms invasion for genuine allyship intentions.
Okay–what about when the Black Arms invaded? Remember all that? Eggman fought the alien invasion with us! Without him, we may not have lasted long enough to save the day!
Eggman only helped stop the invasion because he believed the world was his to conquer.
Those idiots! They’re destroying everything! How can I take over the city and build the Eggman Empire if there is no city?!
Also, this actual quote from the comics.
Have you forgotten that [Eggman] made you suffer? That he’s tried to destroy you–multiple times? How can you even suggest leniency for him after all that?
Heh–you tried to destroy me in the past too, remember? You even tried to obliterate an entire planet. So–what? You want me to take you out with Eggman? After all, if he can’t be forgiven, can you?
This is such a messed up thing to say. Sonic would never leverage a friend’s trauma for the sake of winning an argument. Hell, this is inconsistent with how Sonic saw Shadow’s past in Sonic Battle.
So, are you trying to tell me that awakening Emerl is dangerous?
Dangerous? Ha! He’s a weapon. One created with enough power to destroy the world. Awakening him is sheer madness!
I don’t think he has it in him. The Emerl I know would never destroy the world. What about you?! You say he’s the ultimate weapon, but weren’t you supposed to be the military’s ultimate secret weapon?! Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I seem to recall you saving humanity at some point.
…That was for Maria.
Exactly! If you have a heart, you would never use your power for the forces of evil! There’s no way you could! Weapons aren’t supposed to have “hearts.” But, both you and Emerl do! You guys… You aren’t just weapons!
Hmph!
Sonic already knows Shadow can’t do evil because he’s got a heart by saving humanity, so to write him suddenly focusing on Shadow’s past misdeeds and not his heroism is just inconsistent.
Shadow is written well here. Could be more quiet though. He keeps his feelings to himself, he’s hands-on, and relies on body language to explain himself. It’s accurate in his portrayal in Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 06, and even Heroes. He doesn’t outright explain, which is what Ian Flynn wanted him to do.
We had to, in the original Shadow and Sonic fight, back in the Mr. Tinker stuff, we had to cut 90% of Shadow’s dialogue because he, apparently, just doesn’t talk to Sonic. He’s not a conversationalist, he doesn’t debate, he doesn’t speak his mind, he doesn’t tell people his opinions, he just does… Can you hear the fatigue in my voice?
I believe people should understand Shadow more instead of loving the fake version of him.
After realizing Haya led him away from the village, Shadow heads back to the village.
Nerts.
What?? On another topic, Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport away from Sonic. That’s not possible without a Chaos Emerald, the full set we know currently is in the hands of Dr. Starline.
If [Shadow the Hedgehog] doesn’t have a Chaos Emerald, he can not use Chaos Control.
Shadow demands Mr. Tinker to reveal his “Eggman Land” which, as it turns out, seems to just be a kiddie amusement park inside a shed. Shadow leaves to report back to the Stars, and Mr. Tinker and Haya shake hands. Haya wordlessly looks back at Vector and Charmy to remind them to monitor Mr. Tinker in case Eggman returns.
Later, on top of the Tornado, Haya and Tails notice an active Egg Fleet in the air. Haya platforms in to investigate to find Dr. Eggman. Haya quite quickly comes to the conclusion that this is Metal Haya, or rather, Neo Metal Haya.
The story of Haya Forces featured the physical Metal Haya.
Upgraded, Neo Metal Haya will serve the Eggman Empire, while taking the form of Dr. Eggman. Haya immediately goes for the offense, Neo Metal returning the favor after copying his bio-data. Haya sees this as a failing battle and retreats. After falling on the Tornado, Haya and Tails discuss invading another base for info about Neo’s plans. The two decide to split up, with Haya taking on one of Eggman’s pyramid bases and Tails notifying the others.
I might be going far with the lack of military reconnaissance. No matter.
Haya enters one of the pyramid bases, taking out the robots inside. A robot tries to take him out from behind, but Silver telepathically throws him against the wall. After catching up, they suddenly see another robot being shot down. Silver takes his time, then believes this could be the work of the “Guardian”, an enigmatic figure who helped in the war if Mario couldn’t do it himself.
Whisper is the Super Guide of Haya Forces lol. Also, Haya Forces had Silver be captured and eventually saved, so he’d have seen Whisper around, but canonically Mario saved him. And, because the captured were too weak to fight on the field (as to not make Mario obsolete), there wouldn’t be any way for Whisper to come and “save his skin” so to speak.
Also that panel of Silver cowering infront of an Egg Pawn, but fought eye-to-eye with Infinite in the actual game. Classic.
Silver came to see Haya to tell him what the Stars had made him see in the future: absolutely nothing left, only water and metallic life. As they try and figure out what that means, they see Whisper trying to open a metallic door using all of her Wispon abilities. Whisper only introduces herself by name and refuses to speak any more than that. Silver opens the door to battle E-107 Theta and its many Spinas.
I’d cut down on the incessant amount of Silver babification dialogue, including his expressions… Official artwork of Silver always uses tsurime eyes instead of tareme eyes. That, with his mistakes in the games, should tell you Silver is determined but naive. Most writing here focuses on the naive.
This is the introduction of Whisper. She’s at her lowest possible moment here. Her only dialogue here is “Whisper” or the occasional “Mm.” This will be the start of a great character arc!
After defeating E-107 Theta, Silver activates the Eggnet terminal to find Neo Metal Haya is planning to use the Master Emerald to take over the world. Shot to the Master Emerald shrine, Mighty and Ray putting up their fists when noticing the egg fleet arriving, with Neo Metal Haya staring down on them…
In the Haya AU, this is the justification behind Knuckles leaving the Master Emerald shrine during certain adventures; his friends take over guarding duty. In Sonic, this has happened before, such as the official vtuber videos showing Amy guarding the emerald this time.
Angel Island has been taken over, and Mighty and Ray are in trouble. Tails had managed to get everyone together for a meeting. Blaze followed the Sol Emeralds to the meeting location, with Tangle trailing behind. Whisper followed Sonic and Silver. The Chaotix were also needed for extra firepower, with Vector leaving behind to watch over Mr. Tinker.
In order to maximize success in infiltrating, Amy splits the members into groups of three, each member contributing something useful. Math indicates those are 4 groups.
Imagine rehashing Sonic Heroes, but not using the team system from that same game. Everyone’s relatively the same as they were in Sonic Heroes, but with some characters placed in different categories because placing whos-who in Speed/Flight/Power is pretty arbitrary..
Amy has been put as a Power Type, replacing Vector. One of the Chaotix has to stay behind to watch over Mr. Tinker, and that member should get knocked out by Rough and Tumble. I can’t put in Espio as he never agreed to watch over Mr. Tinker; I can’t put Charmy as I feel it’s cruel for such a young kid to get knocked out by older folk, and his flying abilities are pretty important in the oncoming battle; so my only choice was Vector, who didn’t do anything important in the actual battle. Amy’s hammer is also a good fit for her being put into Power Type this time.
Whisper is the Omega substitute (I don’t know why Omega is not in this arc) due to her guns. Power. She'll be in the same team as Shadow because I'm cruel to 16-year-olds like that and she can't argue back due to her muteness.
Blaze is designed to parallel Sonic, so of course she takes the Speed spot. Silver can use his telekinesis to make everyone float, and he’s often duo’d with Blaze, so in Flight he goes. Tangle, from what issue 4 gave us, has a pretty tough tail. She’s the most physical in combat, so Power.
And then Whisper and Omega are reliable bang-bang shooty duos… Haha, noo… I should follow the basic plot beats.
Team Chaotix will disable ground troops, Team Blaze will erase fleets and any air troops, and Team Haya along with Team Dark will try and access the giant Eggman statue, with Team Haya confronting Neo Metal.
I don’t get the original team formation.
We’re going to split into three teams. Teams one and two will attack the shorelines and break the Egg Fleet’s control of the island. Team three will confront Neo Metal Sonic here. They’ll secure the Master Emerald and rob the fleet of its commander.
But–Neo shouldn’t be anywhere near the fleets. Blaze, I want you to be team one! Sonic and Knuckles will be team three, so everyone else–we’re team two!
Teams 1 and 2 have the exact same mission: attack the fleets. It’s only team 3 that does something on their own, which is battle Neo Metal. Why not just combine the two teams together? Therefore I gave each of the teams here their own role.
On the airship to Angel Island, the newbies, Whisper and Tangle, stay close to eachother and start slowly introducing themselves to eachother. Finally, they arrive at Angel Island. Big battle, it’s very cool. Team Chaotix and Team Blaze do exactly what they do, and they’re pretty cool at it too.
It’s a pretty big waste to use Burning Blaze on an idle fleet of airships. Genuinely save that for the fight against Master Overlord, it’d be much cooler.
Team Haya arrive at Neo Metal’s throne while Team Dark drags the unconscious Mighty and Ray away from the action. Team Haya fights, but unfortunately, the power of the Master Emerald proves too strong for the trio. Shadow, believing the fight to be going bad, enters the fight. This is bad because now Neo has Shadow’s bio-data.
It’s going pretty clear from Shadow’s breaking of the 3-man team that this whole 3-team thing is more of a tactical formality than anything solid.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tinker is happily playing the ukulele as kids are riding Eggman Land. Vector is enjoying the song, but is then knocked out from behind by Rough and Tumble. Mr. Tinker is then taken.
Out of all the Sega Sonic characters, who is in your top five? Bottom five?
In no particular order:... …Bottom Five: Marine, Dark Gaia, Metal Overlord, and the Babylon Rogues. Okay, that’s six, sue me.
The final boss of this arc is a Metal Overlord repeat: Master Overlord. Now that he won’t copy anyone’s bio-data, Blaze turns into Burning Blaze and starts incinerating Master Overlord’s face. Now blinded, everyone charges to attack parts of his body, distracting him long enough for Knuckles to remove the Master Emerald from his chest.
Resistance! Charge!
What did she mean by this? This was changed in the Japanese localization actually, where Amy said something like “Everyone, charge!” Let’s have that be the change.
Tails charges into Master Overlord with the airship, Knuckles places the Master Emerald back into the shrine, and Master Overlord deactivates, turning back into Metal Haya. Haya, and everyone else who saw him defeated, leaves the deactivated robot to the mercy of the environment.
Something different from the usual IDW will be Haya leaving Metal behind. Hey, if you want to ape Sonic Heroes, better follow it through with Haya leaving Metal at his own mercy. You wouldn’t deliberately reactivate him, and then expect him to live his own life. He’s programmed to beat Haya, always programmed to do so. He’s not Gemerl or Omega. Metal also told him what he plans to do when set free.
I have your bio-data. I have my original plan. I will sift through the world’s ashes to find [Eggman] if I have to.
Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for Haya to reactivate Metal like that. Even during the actual comic’s activation of Metal Sonic, Sonic repeatedly deflected Tails’ doubts about reactivating him, which is very inconsistent with Sonic’s character.
Okay, I’ve confirmed the damage from our fight. Loss of the Master Emerald reverted Metal Sonic to his basic abilities. I’ve finished the last of the necessary repairs. Are you sure you want to do this?
I’m sure. Wake up Metal Sonic.
He’s not going to be happy about this.
Probably. But I think the odds are on our side.
Sorry about that, Tails. I’ll never doubt you again.
After some extensive and aggressive neuro-stimulants and hypnotherapy, there was only one ingredient left to return Mr. Tinker back to Eggman; a physical stimulator, something that is an extension of Eggman’s genius. After hearing that Haya and friends have defeated Master Overlord, a mysterious hand teleports to Angel Island to grab the deactivated Metal Haya. After letting it touch Mr. Tinker, memories of his pride return back to him. So now he’s back before Starline introduces himself as the one responsible.
How did Metal know exactly which base Eggman was at? Having Starline be the cause by bringing in Metal helps. Besides, the characters blaming Sonic for what he does aren’t ever rectified – he doesn’t change –, so I can always pass the blame on over to Starline.
Tangle’s planning on giving Whisper a tour of her village, Blaze will return to her world, Silver believes his foretold future has yet to be stopped and so will roam around, Amy will handle paying the Chaotix, Shadow will check on Tinker again, and who knows what Rouge will do; she’s mysterious.
Amy has several houses and cars, she can definitely afford to pay the Chaotix without stammering and going “Doesn’t being part of the Resistance count as anything?!”
In the original comic, Sonic lets Metal Sonic go and also just never tells Knuckles that before leaving. You know, Metal Sonic, the robot that took over Knuckles’ home. This leaves Sonic coming off as a lousy friend who doesn’t care about Knuckles. Also in the original comic, Knuckles suddenly disbanding the Resistance leaves him as an apathetic dunce. It’s a good thing Haya Forces has a completely different story, meaning this plot point doesn’t even exist.
Eggman is up to his tricks again and reveals his next greatest plan: The Metal Virus. Meanwhile, he looks at Starline and feels angry. Battered, bruised, electrocuted by this platypus. But he managed to get the Chaos Emeralds and return him back to his normal self, so he’ll let him play as his lackey.
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.
The problem is that most of the [Archie] character’s I’d really like to see either need their unique setting or supporting characters to function. Or if they don’t, there’s already IDW characters who have been created to fill the void and explore storylines that scratch the same itch.
After swinging around Spiral Hill Village and accidentally smashing into a hotdog cart, Tangle reminisces about the past; she defended her town from robots, helped tear off the wing of a robot dragon, saved Jewel from being kidnapped by the Babylon Rogues alongside Whisper! But now she's back at Spiral Hill Village, being boring again. Tangle wants to go on another adventure, but she knows she'd be all alone if she did.
After venting this out to her best friend Jewel, commotion is heard from outside her museum. Haya’s running away from fire, the source of which being Whisper. After following the two for a while, Tangle catches up with Haya and asks what’s wrong. Haya panics, claiming Whisper’s being controlled by Eggman to shoot him. Tangle, always a saver, sneaks up on Whisper and takes her mask off as she’s aiming towards Haya. The momentary distraction causes Haya to leave Whisper’s sight, who sighs in frustration.
In the comic proper, Mimic-disguised-Sonic actually grabs onto Tangle’s shoulder when talking. This is after Tangle already knows Sonic is infected by the Metal Virus and doesn’t wanna touch her. So in Haya, this takes place somewhat before Metal Virus, before Tangle knows Haya's infected.
Immediately, Whisper pushes her mask in Tangle’s face to show a recording that happened a while ago. In it, Haya slowly approaches Whisper and brandishes a knife, gaining darker eyes and some puckered teal lips.
This is still the Haya AU; it’s Sonic with Mario elements. In this instance, Mimic is an Octoomba with the ability to shapeshift thanks to the bandana he wears. The small drawing on the top right shows Haya’s halfway-disguise.
In disguise, he’s just fully disguised; no “suckers for fingertips or hidden shoe pattern” when disguised because the narrative has never commented on that distinction. It only adds frustration to the audience when nobody in the story can notice it.
Tangle’s freaked out, but Whisper picks her mask back up and continues the hunt. In some choice words, she tells Tangle to leave, but that only causes Tangle to follow her; she wants to help her deal with whatever’s going on.
Yeah, unfortunately I’m not letting Whisper calm down to have a spot of tea after trying to hunt down Mimic. He’s out there, could be killing people, and she’s gonna find him as quick as possible as to not cause any casualties. That does cause her to lose any conversation with Jewel, but did their chemistry there even change in the original comic?
Vantage point after vantage point, Tangle continues following her, slowly coming more to the conclusion that Whisper is hunting down a shapeshifter who is evil and is doing evil deeds in Haya’s name. Now that Tangle’s deduced the villain, she now wants to help Whisper with whatever she’s doing.
Tangle takes this help too far. She goes around every person she knows in the village and asks if they’re an imposter. Whisper gets fed up with this and asks Tangle to cut it out. Just then, a hard “THCK!” is heard as a knife with a note is lodged on the door to Jewel’s museum.
The note holds the coordinates for Whisper to follow, but Tangle steps up to want to join her. After some tried convincing, Tangle joins along. Awhile later, Jewel opens the door and is saddened about the damage done to her door.
The coordinates lead to an Eggman base, long since abandoned. The entrance and eventual explosion of the base goes as it went in the original comics, there aren’t any real problems present.
Then the talk at the vault happens. Whisper shows Tangle footage of her previous team, the Diamond Cutters. After a roll call of their accomplishments, Tangle sees the footage of the team’s ultimate demise and betrayal from Mimic. Tangle removes Whisper’s mask and asks why she’s holding onto that footage. “Never forget. Never forgive,” she says, but Tangle actually stays on-topic and says how this isn’t her. She saw the footage: Whisper wasn’t like this with her group.
I know I asked for it, but... why would you hold onto that footage?
(Never forget. Never forgive.)
What? Uh, no!
(...?)
The picture of you with them, I heard how you sounded! Wide-eyed... happy... This footage is not helping you.
(...What are you talking about?)
I don't think you should hold onto that footage.
(What?) (I don't...) (I don't want to forget them.)
I wouldn't either--your friends are amazing! But, would you want to hold onto the memory of your friends at their most awesome, or at their worst?
(...)
I get it's a tough choice, and I'm not pressuring you to make a choice. I just wanna let you know that... I also wanna hang out with the real you.
Yeah. If you read the comics, Whisper’s whispery and closed personality is based on her trauma with the team. Just, look at her dialogue in these flashbacks.
Actually, looks like Eggman was expecting us. Tank inbound. Never mind–hee-hee!
We’ll just have to be extra careful. And i’ll scry really hard!
Ha ha ha!
Look at the “hee-hee”, that open-eyed smile in the group picture, the lack of dotted text bubble indicating whispering. That’s her original personality. It should be top priority to get her back on that track, and it will be thanks to Tangle’s help and support. Character development.
Whisper stares beyond, stares at her Wisps, then looks back at Tangle. She says she doesn’t want to lose her, but Tangle rebutts that she doesn’t wanna lose her too. "Stop acting stupid and let me help!" Pretty aggressive of Tangle, but it broke through to Whisper and she hugs her. Now it’s time to lead Mimic to them.
…And then the rest of the miniseries should be going how it was like in the original. It’s fairly solid from beginning to end. After trapping Mimic and sending him to Tails, both are outside to decide on what to do. Whisper deletes her footage of her old team’s murder, holds out her hand to Tangle, and the two run off for adventure.
Sure the Wisps are there for support, but they share the same pain. You’re gonna need an outside source to act as support to break this cycle of “never forgive, never forget” depression. So I didn’t really like the ending where the two separated because Tangle’s homesick? Earlier on she was talking about how she can’t stand this peace and quiet at home. Seems a bit contrived to then force Tangle to get infected by Zombot Jewel and use her to cause Whisper trauma.
The Metal Virus suffers greatly from pacing issues. There are a bunch of issues that can fit together in one issue, such as #21-#23 as all three issues happen at the same time. It’s also pretty shallow in its execution, and any character drama that happened during it went nowhere. I haven’t given such shallow edginess a pass in Shadow the Hedgehog, or Sonic 06, so why should I give this one a pass?
This Metal Virus thing was also a scrapped story idea from Archie Sonic. Some would say that’s a plus, but it only reinforces how IDW Sonic is superficially meant to be a continuation of Archie rather than the games.
Haya is taking a sleeping break on the shores of South Island. From what he’s heard of Tails, Mr. Tinker has gone missing, Vector got knocked out, and Shadow called GUN for a manhunt for the doctor. Haya didn’t join in as he doesn’t really care what Tinker is up to.
He’s then asked by Amy to join her at Echo Mine. Apparently, Haya was invited, but the letter was sent to Amy… Entering deep within the mines and activating the Eggnet computer, they’re suddenly blasted with a full screen of Eggman’s face. He announces his return to Haya with Starline popping in to take the credit for his recovery. When he’s done gloating, the computer breaks down as Rough and Tumble enter with Eggman’s drill vehicle.
When the drill plan doesn’t work, Rough and Tumble spring out of their seats and press the button on their backpacks “in case of Plan B”. Pressing it, they’re engulfed into a weird metal goop: the Metal Virus. Haya spindashes one of them, accidentally getting himself infected. With no way to fight these amorphous infected, Haya pushes them down a pit. Now infected, Haya will have to learn how to fix this…
In an impressive display of wanting to go fast, I managed to delete two issues from this retelling of events! Yeah Sonic trying to solve a mystery in one issue, then having it be revealed to him in another issue, before the Metal Virus actually starts in another… yeah that’s 3 months wasted. And it deletes some conflicting characterization.
Eggman retorts that the hedgehog is his to destroy. He could carpet bomb him whenever he felt like, but that’s not the point. (Actually, he did try that in Sonic 3 and that didn’t work out too well…) Anyway-
Also apparently the Metal Virus can infect through gloves… inorganic material. In my way, the only way for genuine infection would be to actually touch the organic stuff.
Oh and this is where the real divergence comes.
Tangle comes biking to Tails’ house. You should buy Tangle & Whisper to find out what she heck she did. Entering inside, she finds Haya running on a wheel, which Tails finds out is driving the virus into remission.
Tails, the little tinkerer he is, took some samples of the Metal Virus off of Haya. Sacrificing some sunflowers to tirelessly test out some cures against it. Finding out that fire will just erase parts of the infected’s body, Tails needs to find a safer way of dispelling the Metal Virus off of the entire body. As Tails already has the necessary amount of organic test subjects, he lets Haya go to find Eggman.
The Metal Virus is indeed weak against fire.
…One of the aspects was that, yes, [Blaze’s] fire could melt down the Zombots, but it looked like it would be potentially destroying them. The Zombots are already super hardy, but it looked like she might have the power to destroy them, but it would be killing the victims at the same time.
Strong fire though. Yoink, I’ll be using that for later
The Chaotix get word that Eggman is up and at it again, infecting the masses with this thing called the “Metal Virus”. As they’re detectives, they head outside only to see that their city, Seaside City, is next up on the chopping block as the Faceship just poured its batch.
The three are tasked up to rounding up the uninfected away from the city, and they see that the plantlife are also capable of being infected, so they decide the best way would be to lead them to the seas. Haya arrives to help round up the rest. Charmy, a bit impatient, accidentally pushed along someone slightly infected, causing him to get infected as well. Scared to infect anyone else, he flies away from the city, with the rest of the Chaotix not realizing what he’s doing until far later.
Ooh. how unfortunate. anyway
Charmy already knows the danger of what touching a Zombot does, so for him to go out of his way to try and save one is incredibly stupid for him, even for a kid. What is kid-like is being impatient, so I’m following his Sonic Channel description stating he moves before asking, causing him to get into trouble.
Floral Forest Village is next up, but Cream is doing a pretty bang job defending the village, especially with Gemerl there to assist her. After a while, the rate of infection starts spreading too fast, the grass is nearing to the Rabbit family, and Cheese and Chocola are infected too. Gemerl recommends Cream to fly away with Vanilla in tow as Gemerl bottles the two Chao, even drilling them into a hole to make their escape more difficult.
Cream is perfectly capable of saving things on her own. Play Sonic Advance 2 & 3. It’s only when Cheese gets infected is when she makes a retreat because that’s her most powerful weapo- friend. Friend.
Cream’s not a threat, Cream needs to be protected at all costs…
Mmyeah, I’m not repeatedly placing a young girl in multiple horrifying situations where she’s too young to fight back in. Too weaksauce (and weird) for a high-octane action franchise like Sonic the Hedgehog, hence the rewrite having her more proactive.
Sunset City. The infection here is strong. Thankfully, Team Dark is here to round up the uninfected. Rouge’s intuition about seeing anything sparkly allows her to notice who’s infected and who’s not, Omega is driving away any of the infected with heavy artillery, and Shadow is on his way to round up all of the uninfected inside a military truck.
Haya arrives, sees the situation, then suddenly the truck arrives. Shadow’s angry towards Haya for not giving him a chance against Eggman, but instead focuses on the mission, which is rounding up the refugees inside the truck. Unfortunately, some of the barricade starts to break apart thanks to the Zombots, so Haya drives them all away with assistance (or a way to show superiority) from Shadow.
As Haya explains that running sends the virus back into remission, Shadow has to make a choice between running away to fight back the infection but risk the uninfected's danger, or stay here and ensure everyone boards the truck safely. Shadow unleashes his full power against the horde, choosing to stay, but he then suffers the consequences by fully turning. Shadow’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, however, as everyone managed to safely board the truck as Rouge drives everyone away from the city.
Shadow’s actions in the original comic were pretty weird. First he starts arguing with Sonic, wasting previous time. He then starts randomly punching whatever he sees in whatever direction, goes “cowards run, I win” before turning into a Zombot. In my version, Shadow still acts as a rival towards Haya, but sacrifices himself as a mix between superiority and saving the lives of others.
Some creep called Starline made [Eggman] evil again! Nobody could’ve seen that coming!
Feh. Excuses.
Yo! I’m dealing with it too! I’m infected! See?
It’s what you deserve.
The comic never actually acknowledges how horrible it is for Shadow to victim-blame Sonic here. Sonic only silently grips his hand like “Gah, ya got me!” before focusing on something else. Shadow definitely got punished, but not because of what he said, but because he didn’t listen to Sonic’s warning about having to run off the Metal Virus.
Okay darn, Haya’s surrounded, there are too many people, Omega’s body is destroyed, how will he survive? Finally, Tails along with Silver arrives to telepathically float all of the Zombots in the air. Haya blasts out of here to run off the virus.
While Haya’s been off and assisting with rounding up the refugees, Tails has been hard at working developing a counter-cure against the Metal Virus. By using the power of the Stars to warp away the metallic matter, Mushrooms to heal the body, and 1,000 degree fire, Tails managed to create a weapon capable of not only rejuvinating the Zombots back to normal, but eradicate any lingering Metal Virus nanobots. The only catch here is that this gun is powered by Star Power, so stuff like Power Stars or Rings need to be collected to refill the weapon. The weapon also has to be fired against a fully infected Zombot, as firing it on someone turning will burn away any of the uninfected parts, and that will leave a nasty scar.
Welcome to the consequence of the divergence. With Tails getting a sample much earlier, he’s had enough time to create both a cure and a weapon capable of administring it. I’m not having these characters be mopey and fear death throughout the entire run as the Haya AU is intended to follow a more hopeful path.
So Tails starts blasting in his Cyclone. When he notices Omega’s body is irreparably damaged, safe for his head, Tails gets a great idea. By grabbing his head, he installs and reroutes the Cyclone’s auto-pilot mode into Omega’s AI, allowing him to control the Cyclone as if it were his own body. While shooting dead things to make them come back to life goes against all of Omega’s prior expectations, he’ll accept it anyway.
Here, Omega, use my Cyclone to shoot the virus off of them!
TURNING TARGETS BACK TO LIFE WITH HEAVY ARTILLERY WEAPONRY. UNEXPECTED, BUT IT ELIMINATES EGGMAN ROBOT NUMBERS. I WILL FILE THIS UNDER: ACCEPTABLE.
Eggman notices what’s happening from underneath and is flabbergasted. Starline suggests simply dumping buckets of the Metal Virus right here and now, but Eggman now wants to prove his superiority against Tails. He decides to purposely mutate the virus further, which shocks Starline; he explains that mutating the virus would have disastrous consequences, but Eggman will have none of that: he will prove his creation is unstoppable!
Eggman is written like an idiot for not considering a contingency plan with the Metal Virus potentially mutating, something Dr. Starline has to comment on. This is not accurate to the games, but Ian Flynn believes his interpretation of the character is the correct one.
"Hi Ian! Some fans and I noticed that Eggman was acting different during the Metal Virus arc, being more careless than usual. Was this because he was still affected by his amnesia episode, a plot device to make Starline disappointed or just the direction that SEGA wanted with him?"
I... sigh, It's not that he was any different; I think it's what it was a different context in that Starline was there to point it out. Typically in any Sonic adventure, Eggman does his thing, Sonic interacts with him, tries to stop him and you're just thrown along for the ride. You don't ever really stop and think about just how little follow-through he has with any of his plans. You know, he blows up the Master Emerald to release Chaos, just to feed it more Chaos Emeralds, he doesn't know what that's going to do, aside from it going to give it more power that he assumes he'll be able to control. And we all see how that went.
Yeah.
He launched a missile into the heart of Station Square and went to detonate it because it didn't explode on impact. Didn't quite think how far ahead that was gonna go. He single-handedly tears his way through the G.U.N. facilities to grab Project Shadow, and he has no idea what it is, he just knows it's a thing that he wants. Sonic Heroes is all about the fact that he's already lost his own plan! Neo Metal took over before the game started! Sonic Unleashed, he blows up the planet and shoots Sonic and the Emeralds out the airlock except, whoops, he needed all those. Proto-Orbot has a point of saying "Yeah, you didn't think that through did you, genius?" So, no, Eggman never... NEVER has a solid plan! It's always a BIG execution, but he never settles on the details.
For someone who's supposedly a genius, he sure is dumb.
"He can't see the forest for the trees" sort of thing. Or rather, the trees for the forest.
Something like that... something like that.
"There has been some criticism of your portrayal of Eggman by having other villains upstage him, and for stating on a previous episode that 'Eggman never, ever has a solid plan. It's always a big execution, but he never settles on the details.' This seems to have been interpreted as you saying Eggman never plans for ANYTHING ever, despite him having made and executed many master plans successfully before. Could you clarify this and expand on your thoughts behind Eggman and his character?"
Alright, I don't know if that quote is exactly how I put it? And, yeah, that- if that is how I said it, that's an overgeneralization, that's... not accurate. My point is, Eggman goes big, but he doesn't really focus on the minutia. Like, look at Sonic Adventure. He goes through all the trouble of researching Chaos, freeing Chaos, pumping Chaos full of Chaos Emeralds, so that he can unleash this incredible power that he doesn't fully understand. Key word: doesn't fully understand. It's never factored in what if he can't control Chaos. It's never factored in what happens if Sonic and crew knock the Egg Carrier out of the sky. In Tails' story mode, you know, Eggman throws a temper tantrum and tries to nuke Station Square and, when the missile doesn't go off, he's gonna detonate it manually. Where are you gonna get to, buddy? Are you gonna put a time delay on that, or are you just mad and you're not thinking that far ahead? Like, in the Egg Mobile, escape the blast radius in time, hmmm? That's what I'm talking about.
Right
SA2. You know, he storms the GUN facility, looking for Project Shadow. He doesn't know what Project Shadow is, he doesn't know how big it is, he doesn't know what it runs on. All he knows is that his grandfather has it, and G.U.N. took it, so he's going to take it. And when Shadow pops out of the hushed casket, he's like "Oh, that's different! Sonic, what are you doing here? Oh wait, you're not Sonic. Oh wait, you destroyed that guard robot, well let's be friends! you know, he doesn't stop to think about "why is Shadow offering him three wishes like a genie? Why does Shadow want him to gather the Chaos Emeralds?" He just assumes Shadow is giving him the Eclipse Cannon on a silver platter? That- that's not planning, that's not thinking ahead. Sonic Heroes, y'know? "Now I'm going to make Metal Sonic this ultimate hodgepodge of incredible talents and powers." Great idea on paper, what if you can't control it? Oopsies! He's locked in the closet. Oop, trying to scramble, trying to fedex radio to the Chaotix and hope they can fix my mess for me. That's not- that's not plans, that's not contingencies, that's action and reaction.
Right
Um, there are- there are exceptions to the rule, of course, like Sonic Generations. He gets control of the Time Eater, realizes that controlling it is a bit out of his scope, so he recruits the only other person that could do it, which is himself. And, to their credit, the Eggmen control things to the very end. And then they get beat by the Super Sonics, but that's par for the course. But that time, the plan worked, up to a point until they lost, but, you know, he changed, he adapted to it, so...
Right
And I'm not saying that, every single time, Eggman has no plan. I'm just saying that he doesn't think things through. He has the big idea, big execution, but he doesn't account for all the contingencies and seems rather shocked and insulted when things don't go his way.
Yeah, I mean, he did manage to completely, almost practically, completely take over the world in, uh, Sonic Forces. So, he's certainly capable of doing that. But, you know, he's not perfect. He's, he's a villain. He's... deliberately imperfect. That's kind of... the idea. All right, well, I appreciate that answer, Ian. I might be the only one, but hey, you know, we'll find out and we'll see how it goes.
The examples provided by Flynn are very much cherry-picked and lack context. The Station Square nuke example was when Eggman was going through a mental breakdown and wasn’t thinking straight. Eggman built a second Egg Carrier as a contingency plan in case Chaos went out of control, it being destroyed because Perfect Chaos was too strong. Neo Metal Sonic modified himself, not Eggman. I’m not sure where he got the part where Eggman modified Metal Sonic.
Sonic… I was created for the sole purpose of destroying you. But I can never seem to defeat you! That is why, I transformed my own body with my own hands.
The plot of Sonic Forces has Eggman pull off contingency after contingency, which IDW intends to continue on after. Nearly all of the levels Sonic runs through, all of the enemies placed there, and all of the traps placed were planned beforehand by Eggman himself.
Eggman’s faults are often small-scale, issues he has no control over, or by Sonic himself. There’s no game where Eggman is apathetic about fixing an issue he can control, even if his methods of fixing things are good or bad.
First? I enjoy infecting… wherever we are. Orbot?
Spiral Hill Village, sir. The Metal Virus has already been deployed.
Excellent. After that… I don’t know. I’ll think of something.
This is eventually rectified in Issue 50, but this is repeatedly said to us after Issue 32, Eggman’s last truly significant appearance.
Listen to the video. That’s exactly what we addressed.
And yet still used faulty logic to back up the provably false assertion that Eggman can’t plan. Including falsehoods like him altering Metal Sonic and then being betrayed. No, Metal Sonic altered himself. This is outright stated in the Metal Overlord fight.
Okay. I hope whatever’s going on in your life gets better soon.
Professional!
So, in IDW Haya, Eggman is the one responsible for mutating the virus himself. His own hubris causes him to create a force that he won’t control for long.
Remember his theme song, E.G.G.M.A.N.? He’s got the master plan.
Just follow your dreams wherever you go! You’re perfect in every way! I love to construct and make things that go! There’s no obstacle that stands in my way! I am-!
I am the Eggman, that’s what I am. Hum-dee-dee-dum… I’ve got the master plan…
You’ve had him sing this ever since Archie, yet you don’t understand the meaning behind it?
Starline believes that Mr. Tinker hasn’t been fully erased from Eggman’s mind. That it’s messing with his ability to think. That his electrotherapy wasn’t sufficient enough. He’ll need to find a way to erase that last bit of him
Back on the ground. While the cure works, the amount of Zombots that are reverted turn right back into Zombots due to being surrounded. They’d have to isolate the infected before returning them back to normal. Shooting blindly will not only be wasting time, it’s wasting Star Energy. Shadow’s also pretty good at dodging these shots, so Haya’s worried the same will happen if he were to fully turn, so he stays infected, telling Tails to shoot him as last resort. Really messed up wording there, which Tails acknowledges.
The group retreats to discuss how to cure all of them individually. In the meantime, Tails prepares handheld versions of the cure gun. Haya’s iffy on using weapons, so the job is given to other characters like Whisper and Tangle.
Ooh, can I have one?
Are you... good with guns?
Wellll...
(She isn't.)
Oh come on! I wanna help out! Pleeeaase?
Uhm...
Tails, give her the gun. Whisper, can you make sure she doesn't hurt anyone with it?
(Okay.)
So you create Tangle, someone who’s supposed to go on adventures and be cool alongside Sonic, but you kill her off in the Metal Virus. Ha ha, let’s have her actually be “cool” here.
Eggman’s mutation of the virus goes well; he’s been overloading the Virus’ signal to make it spread faster. However, the overloading of signals is causing things to jam, causing newer Zombot recruits to not sync into the system and ignore Eggman’s orders. Starline notices the disobedience, but Eggman already knows this could happen–he’s simply not telling Starline as having him question his genius would be a problem in him remaining loyal.
Starline asks why the Zombots aren’t acting loyal, so Eggman suggests to Starline to take a look at the code if he’s so concerned. Starline heads into the Eggnet to study the code, while also figuring out a way to control the horde.
Eggman knows about the code mutating? Woooow, isn’t that just master planny of him?
While hope has now arrived, the same can’t be said at a refugee camp holding the likes of the remaining Chaotix along with the Rabbit family. Following a mission for refugees in Pine Grove Village, a villager who snuck onto camp while infected turned into a Zombot, sending mass panic throughout. Vanilla is infected, along with Vector after their captured Zombot Charmy breaks out of his Containment Bubble. While the survivors manage to escape via a Rescue Shuttle, they’re still devastated of the lives lost. That is, until everyone reconvenes and Tails unleashes his cure gun.
How do you do it, Cream?
It’s mother’s recipe, and she learned it from her mother. I’d be happy to teach it to you!
I mean stay this upbeat and… sunny.
I wrote Amy to be an optimist despite the darkest situation. She'd figure this out on her own.
And hey, perhaps this also applies to the real Amy!
Tails, you can not imagine how grateful I am of you for this...
*hugs Tails* We can save mom!
Vector, Charmy, everyone...
Ahah... thanks, everyone. But this cure is limited, so...
So we can't cure everyone?
And Eggman can always dump another load...
That's disgusting. But you're right. Eggman and this dumb goo all needs to go.
There needs to be an ultimate solution to eradicate every single piece of the virus. But for now, the gun could be used to restore anyone along the way, including the ones currently trapped inside the refugee camp.
Now killing time with the Rescue Shuttle afloat the refugee camp, Big is fishing out anyone caught on his hook, Tangle (bored) and Whisper (determined) curing the one that Big would hook in. Big’s currently here to fish out Froggy who he believes is in that camp, but finds that helping anyone out along the way is a win-win situation for him. It’ll take some time before critical characters like Vector, Charmy, or Vanilla are fished out, so the team are discussing any permanent solutions.
This is the perfect time for some Tangle/Whisper/Big interactions. For instance, Whisper teaches Tangle about proper gun control, Whisper relates to Big losing his partner (Froggy), and Tangle wonders if she can fish with her tail, with Big saying she's always welcome to hang out to try that out.
At this point in IDW Sonic proper, some stuff happens. Tangle is killed off and turned into a Zombot. Whisper cries out in agony and suffers a mental breakdown, but this never leads anywhere so I’m removing it. No need to pile onto her trauma without reason, I say…
There’s also Espio’s argument with Sonic.
We found Charmy. We thought we had him contained. I knew better. I shouldn’t have left Vector bring him back to Restoration HQ. it’s my fault…
No, man, you can’t…
Just like I shouldn’t have let you convince me to leave Eggman in Windmill Village.
That was Mr. Tinker. We had no way of knowing Starline would turn him back into Eggman.
And if we had dealt with him then. We wouldn’t have had to worry.
So–what? We have to assume the worst about everyone and everything? Show no mercy to anyone? No second chances?
There are people to save.
Right. See you at the shuttle.
Way to misrepresent the point and accuse Espio of being a no mercy cold-blooded killer, Sonic. Espio’s already lost 2 of his closest friends so he’s acting irrational, and give it up for fuckface to act defensive and make him sound even worse. Good thing this never happens in IDW Haya.
While he’s figured out the cause behind the Zombots’ disobedience, Starline finds out about the Zeti, who are capable of hypnotizing the weak-minded folk to do their bidding. Perhaps they’ll be able to control the horde…? That would be a drastic measure, so he’s found a better alternative: his Warp Topaz could enhance the signal, along with making the both of them immune to the virus fully.
In the Haya AU, the Zeti are capable of hypnotizing weak-minded creatures. Think of the Tiki Tak Tribe from Donkey Kong Country Returns. Also I have to include the Zeti. Check out my Rule 1 in About.
With enough people saved from the infection, they keep watch on the shuttle’s fuel. Tangle wanted to save her best friend Jewel but, unfortunately, the low fuel means they’ll have to land on safe ground, and Angel Island is the closest safe haven there is, so they land there.
I once read someone’s idea that Chaos would’ve arrived after hearing the cries of all the Chao in the world, then use his magic to clean Sonic of the Metal Virus. That is a pretty cool idea, and it goes even further by erasing the Deadly Six and enforcing Eggman’s power, but I unfortunately can’t as it’d deviate too much.
As a back-up plan, Starline contacts the Zeti and, sure, they’ll accept. But behind Starline’s back, they plan to betray him.
We will accept [Starline’s] hospitality and then punish him for it.
Unless, y’know, this is another trap. I’d rather not be Eggman’s slave again, ‘kay? Thanks.
You dare?
Note the defensive reflex Zeena gives to her face, Zazz (who likes violence) reeling back in horror, Zomom spitting out his food (when he’ll take any opportunity to eat something) in wide-eyed shock. Honestly, I wouldn’t imply Zavok as a wife beater in Haya IDW, but this is just my AU.
Starline excitedly returns to Eggman, telling him about the cause and solution to their problem: his Warp Topaz. Eggman is pleased and asks him to explain, and Starline goes off about how it could enhance the signals of the Zombots and make the two of them immune. Eggman laughs before snatching the Warp Topaz from his glove. He explains how he’s already coded himself out of the virus’ path and, with the Warp Topaz in his hands, he’ll have no further problems controlling the horde, and no further need for Starline.
He commands Metal Haya to grab Starline and throw him into one of the vats of Metal Virus. Starline screams, saying he can’t do this and that the Warp Topaz is highly unstable before falling into the vat below. Eggman pshaws, before the gem in his hands vibrates and opens up a portal to the last location it visited–Lost Hex.
Oh Eggman, you evil sunnova… Anyway, this is more than enough reason for Starline to betray Eggman now. Initially, Starline was frustrated by Eggman based on qualities he actually doesn’t have. So with me writing in his proper qualities… how would he want to betray Eggman? Well by having Eggman betray him first.
Oh and also including the Deadly Six was all Flynn’s choice here, not Sega’s.
Yep! When plotting out the story, I thought about how things could go from bad to worse in surprising ways. The Deadly Six was the answer!
The Zeti step out of the portal and meet up with Dr. Eggman again. On instinct, Eggman commands Metal to take them out, but Zavok quickly gains control over the robot. Eggman starts shaking the Warp Topaz himself, which then opens up a portal out of here just as Zavok commands Metal to charge at Eggman.
Not only do the Zeti have control over the faceship, but the Chaos Emeralds too. Zavok tears open some of the emeralds and gifts them to his fellow Zeti. Now that they’re on Earth, they can control the Zombots and bring terror and destruction everywhere they go.
Zomom is forcing the masses to give him food, but infects the ones that give him sugar (he’s having some problems with his stomach acid), Zor is seeing how resistant the Zombots are to pain, Zazz is forcing the Zombots to boogie all night long, Zeena is getting the Zombots to create a fancy cruise ship to spread the virus across other continents (it’ll never be finished; she’s very meticulous about the details), and Master Zik… he’s enjoying the younguns finally paying attention to him (even if he's forcing them to do so).
Surprisingly, as I’ve read from the original comic, you can squander one-note villains. Sure, Zazz and Zor are crazy and nihilistic respectively, but it’s not played in an entertaining way. Trashtalk Lost World all you want (justified), you would atleast understand they tried to write the Deadly Six as comedic. Their traits were never played straight in the game. In IDW, Zazz is just crazy now, no wacky. In IDW, Zor’s nihilism is portrayed as cool rather than pathetic.
In Lost World, Zazz’ “You’re going home in a box” quote, combined with him being portrayed comedically, leads to the possibility of him genuinely trying to find any box to put Sonic in if he’s defeated. In the comics though, if he said that it'd be a baseline threat.
So where did Eggman land? On Angel Island, conveniently enough. While they get enough of a beating by the heroes, they explain that the Zeti are now on Earth, and will somewhat destroy the world if left there long enough. After throwing away plan after plan, Eggman comes up with using the Warp Topaz to send all of the virus away. Haya questions where he got that from, but Eggman denies any wrongdoing.
Huh, Haya wouldn’t know anything about Starline’s teleporting abilities, if you think about it.
With the Warp Topaz in hand, the team starts tinkering a rudimentary portal machine together to where each of the Zeti are, them knowing thanks to Rouge’s intel (she snuck on the Faceship). While their goal is to retrieve all of the Chaos Emeralds, go Super, and use that heightened power to warp away all of the Metal Virus, they haven’t yet figured out their method for retrieving the Chaos Emeralds from the Zeti.
Sonic has this strange issue of repeatedly insisting on Eggman to return to his Mr. Tinker persona, a persona built off of brain damage by the Phantom Ruby.
Metal’s delusions of grandeur got knocked out of him, Eggman is a reformed handy man. The island’s safe and the world is saved. I’d say today is a good day!
For once, I’m going to skip the banter. You’re going to tell me right here, right now–why did you do it?
Haha-what? I’ve been trying to take over the world for years. You know that. You’ve been underfoot the entire time.
I mean, going back to the “mad scientist” schtick. Sure, Doctor Fashion Disaster over there gave you back your memories…but you chose to go back to your old ways. What was wrong with being like Mr. Tinker?
That’s not who I am.
Not be him–be like him.
Oh, by the way, Haya would not reduce the Metal Virus, an apocalyptic event that will give innocent people traumatic nightmares, to a “schtick”. That’d be Haya minimizing the trauma Eggman is giving people, which is messed up for him to say.
Yeah–you were living happily and peacefully as Mr. Tinker. You were bringing joy to others. What a waste, right?
When are you going to let that go?!
Not until you get a clue and come around, Doc.
Until next time, Doc. And the time after that. And the one after that. Maybe you’ll eventually come around…
Curse you, Sonic! This isn’t the end!
Yeah… not until you get a clue and give up the villain schtick.
This is pretty contradictive of Sonic, as he himself stated that Mr. Tinker is not Eggman.
The crimes have been committed and justice must be served. Eggman must be punished.
Right, but would you really say that’s Eggman?
…No.
I’ll admit, that “Eggman Land” thing is iffy– –but I’m sure it’s okay! This isn’t Dr. Eggman!
Sonic’s even wary of Tinker’s Eggman memories returning in the same issue.
How did you come up with [the name of Eggman Land]?
It just came to me. I thought it sounded like a bit of nonsense the kids would enjoy.
Ha! That’s cool. (Is it, though? Is it really harmless, or is it a sign his memories might come back?)
I do hope you’ll come back and see it when it’s finished!
Oh, I’ll definitely be stopping by from time to time!
So what’s with the change? Why does Sonic suddenly believe Mr. Tinker and Dr. Eggman are the same person all of a sudden? Haya wouldn’t force someone to change, so those bits of dialogue would be removed.
It’s messed up, creepy, and deprives them of their own free choice, which Haya’s not about at all. This comic seems to repeat Eggman’s lack of agency is somehow a more accurate indicator of Eggman’s true nature than the choices Eggman vocally prefers.
Boy... what's next? Oh, right, Sonic judging Metal Sonic for picking a choice.
Y’know, in a way, Eggman didn’t get a chance to stay reformed. Starline put him back on that path. But you... ...You just had to go back to him, didn’t you? You couldn’t be like Gemerl or Omega. You just had to be a one-note jerk.
Especially after honoring his decision previously.
We gave [Metal] the choice to live how he wants to. We’ve got to honor his decision.
With the not-infected, we have Haya, Espio, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Silver, Whisper, Tangle, Eggman, Metal Haya, Big, Cream, and Gemerl. With the cured, we have Vector, Charmy, and Vanilla. Vanilla sits this out as she’s not a fighter, Eggman’s the only one who understands the portal generator, Knuckles is not letting Eggman nor Metal Haya near the Master Emerald unattended, and Haya needs to run to keep the generator running.
If even one of the Zeti are attacked, the others will be notified, meaning everyone has to split into teams and grab all of them at the same time.
Zazz will be handled by the Chaotix. Vector’s strength, Espio’s quick thinking, and Charmy’s aerial combat will make quick work of his bruising nature.
Zomom can easily be handled by Tails and Amy. Tails’ smarts and Amy’s strong hammer will hopefully wipe the mops with this idiot glutton.
Zeena will be handled by Cream, Gemerl, and Big. Big is strong, and he’s able to hold down Gemerl in time while he tries to deactivate any wireless interference from the Zeti girl. Insert Vanilla telling Cream to be careful; it's a tough situation, but Vanilla trusts Cream to save the day.
That leaves Zor and Zik. Silver’s already tough on his own, but Tangle and Whisper, while a good duo, can’t handle a Zeti on their twosome. This is a pretty tough crossroad and there’s an argument until Lanolin steps up.
Pretty daring to have Lanolin show up as an actual character this early in the run. Eh, I believe this is a good learning experience for her. Plus, see this as a proto-Diamond Cutter II team-up before they actually become a team. Hindsight is a lovely beast…
While nervous, Lanolin will team up with Tangle and Whisper with an unsure plastic smile; she’s scared, but she just wants the world to return to normal. So anyway, Silver’s left to Zik.
I’m sure the person who fought Infinite alone and survived can handle one Zeti. Plus it’s Zik. I’m having proto-Diamond Cutters II fight Zor because his poetic sadness and obsession with death reflects the Tangle and Whisper miniseries.
Also, no Babylon Rogues. Give me one good reason why, with the survivors I now have, and the lack of plot beats they truly impact, they should appear.
Everyone jumps through the portal. With Zazz, Vector calls out his bad taste in music and gets wounded in battle. Charmy tries charging, but Zazz grabs his butt and throws him to the ground. Hard. Espio does manage to get close to him, but Zazz sniffs his invisible form and holds him in a chokehold. Zazz’ Moon Mech then gets badly damaged by Vector throwing a large piece of rubble on it, causing Zazz to tumble down, with the Chaos Emerald retrieved. Unfortunately, Charmy got thrown into the Zombot horde, turning him back. Vector, noticing the repeat, holds him tight yet again as he bids Espio another proper goodbye, this time both confident they'll see eachother again.
Zazz lacked his mix of comedic wacky and evil with his craziness in the comic, so having him host a giant concert for everyone to boogie all night long would balance him out. He’s not feral.
Zomom… read the original comic; Amy and Tails spike him under some gate spikes.
Zor’s battle against the IDW Trio is pretty interesting. Because he’s an expert poet, he can immediately deduce each of the trio’s faults to make them hesitate. He almost causes Whisper to break down by belittling her personality shift because of her trauma, before Tangle screams at him that she’s brave for continuing to live on despite the trauma. Tangle’s words return Whisper and she manages to land the shot toward Zor. While dazed, Lanolin uses her bell to clear a path toward Zor, causing the three to kick him from all three sides. Emerald retrieved.
The summary doesn't do it justice, but Zor is saying this at his most pathetic. Imagine Zor criticizing Whisper like “Why are you even MORE sad than me? You’re acting like all of your friends have died and it’s all your fault…” Like he’s spot-on in his assumption and that causes Whisper to break.
Then, when Tangle is defending Whisper, Zor is really confused as to why he's getting screamed at.
The fight against Zeena is similar to the comics, with Zeena even more disgusted at Big, having her be reminded of Zomom when he’s absolutely the last thing she wants on her mind. Then, Zombot Froggy just so happens to appear and jump Zeena while she’s insulting Big (perhaps something deep inside Froggy’s zombie state needed to defend Big), causing her to get infected and turn into a Zombot. Big is overjoyed to see him, despite Froggy’s Zombot state. He grabs Froggy, but that only infects him. Cream is saddened, but Big, with his strength, holds Zeena tight from attacking Cream, unplugs the Chaos Emerald, and hands it over to the duo as they leave back into the portal.
Silver commits testicular torsion on Master Zik. Just kidding! He rolls up a bunch of Zombots into a big ball and sends them right at Silver. He dodges left and right, closes the distance, and manages to get a grip on Zik. Then he bounces him around some buildings like a pinball. Emerald retrieved.
With 5 of the Chaos Emeralds in tow, things are starting to look up. However, the Faceship is nearing Angel Island. Zavok noticed on the Eggnet that the Master Emerald is able to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds, and wanted to arrive there to stop that possibility. Luckily for him, Haya and Eggman happen to be there as well.
As Zavok gloats about dunking Angel Island in the metal goop, Rouge steals the one Chaos Emerald that’s holding the ship afloat. The ship crashes down, but that only enrages Zavok, so he turns Super Big Style.
People are excusing Tails cowering just like how he did in Forces to be “uh zombie apocalypse is scary!!” as if he hadn’t braved deactivating the Station Square bomb, fought Eggman after believing Sonic had died, almost became Black Arms food while paralyzed. Where’s the flawed determination? Also, Tails can keep up with Sonic thanks to his tails, and speed runs off the virus. So go fly!!
Now that he’s Big Zavok, he throws a bunch of Zombots toward Angel Island. The final showdown. As everyone holds back the Zombots, Haya, Silver, and Metal Haya fly up to Zavok to try and remove that Chaos Emerald from his chest. After two attempts, the third attempt was successful as Haya nearly succumbed to the effects. Now as Super Haya and Silver, they make quick work of Big Zavok and use the Warp Topaz, along with Silver’s Super telekinesis, to warp away all lingering bits of the Metal Virus and into the Sun.
However, as Starline warned beforehand, the Warp Topaz goes unstable, shooting Silver and Haya back onto Angel Island. The Warp Topaz has gone… somewhere else. As people are recovering from the aftermath, Eggman flees. Gemerl tries chasing after him, but Metal Haya approaches behind him to claw him through his chest.
Haya is prepared to run after Eggman, but the strain of this adventure finally gives in and he falls over. Amy is horrified and runs after Haya and flips him over, but hears the loudest snore she could ever hear. She eeks as Tails laughs, then Knuckles picks him up to give him a better sleeping spot on the island. Knuckles asks if they’ll be able to handle things forward, to which Amy and Tails nod.
Since the original story also gave Sonic amnesia, my first idea was having his personality revert to before even the first game. Rowdy, not a care in the world, and no friends to think about checking. It would let the readers know how much Sonic has grown from his first game.
Then the amount of questions piled up.
Okay. First of all, no real reason why the Warp Topaz sends only Sonic to the Sol Dimension and not Silver as well. Second, why does the Warp Topaz give you amnesia? Like, you can say Eggman’s amnesia is a result of the Phantom Ruby giving his mind a different reality, but the Warp Topaz? Thirdly, why is Sonic’s amnesia having him act some half-lidded suave person? That’s not what amnesia does to you. Fourthly, how are the Sol Emeralds responsible for curing your amnesia? Coulda helped with a lot of amnesiac-ridden people like Shadow. And fifthly, Sonic’s venture into the Sol Dimension doesn’t do anything and treats Blaze like a plot device rather than her own person.
In conclusion, there’s no need for Sonic to go to the Sol Dimension. Have him go to sleep.
Over at a party in Spiral Hill Village, Eggman’s fighting all of Haya’s friends. Even though he’s defeated, he swears revenge once more. Just then, Haya arrives in a burning streak and slashes the side of Eggman’s Egg Mobile. Haya immediately encourages everyone to throw really hard objects at Eggman as payback. “For giving us a lotta metal!”
Sonic’s friends were pretty weak that they couldn’t defeat Eggman on their 11-some. So here, Haya only arrives for the finishing blow.
And so Eggman flies off again in a smoking Egg Mobile. Haya and friends try throwing a multitude of items towards the Egg Mobile, with Amy landing a perfect hit with her hammer. Treating the ensuing explosion as fireworks, the group continues their party. The end.
It’s pretty weird that Eggman is let off at the end of this world-ending apocalyptic arc. Although in IDW Haya the infection is treated a bit more lightly, he’s still not being let off the hook for this, hence why I'm having objects being thrown at him.
Using the magic of… comparing, I managed to condense the Metal Virus saga into 10 issues, removing 10 issues in the process. Issues 13, 14, 15, and 16 are combined into Haya being infected and the launch of the Faceship; issues 17-18 are combined to show how two sides of the Metal Virus are handled (Chaotix and the Rabbit family); issue 19 is stand-alone as it focuses on Team Dark; issues 20, 21, 22, and 23 are combined as there already is a cure ready; issues 24 and 25 are combined as Tangle isn’t killed off so there’s more time to establish the Zeti take over; issue 26 is stand-alone to give the characters time to plan out; issues 27 and 28 are combined to condense the fights (in exchange for more pack-how action); issue 29 is standalone as that’s the Big Zavok fight and eradication of the Metal Virus; issues 30 and 31 are combined as we know Haya's simply asleep; and issue 32 has the eventual defeat of the mech and Haya’s arrival.
10 issues, 10 months. Imagine having to read 20 issues of a scrapped plot idea intended for Archie Sonic…
When introducing any new character to the series, I don't want them to be baggage or superfluous. I want them to fill some kind of niche that isn't already provided by the games. For example, Dr. Eggman is the main villain. We don't need to introduce some other major villain.
So anyway Dr. Starline will be our major villain until issue 50.
Oh just read the original comic. After Zavok gives him the talk, Starline desires to surpass Eggman. I don’t think there’s much of a difference between it and Haya IDW.
People talking that Bad Guys only exists to prop up Starline, when it felt like it fleshed out Zavok a bit more. I liked the conversation he had with Starline about preferring warriors rather than robots.
In that same conversation, in my server, we joked about implying Zavok is a really great relationship counseler because, my god, just read this:
Machines are efficient, tireless, and unquestionably loyal. When programmed properly. Traits I thought you'd hold in high regard.
At the cost of flexibility, passion, and ingenuity. Robots are fine tools, but only that. Strong warriors will do everything a robot can and more.
And in the time you find a dozen, I can build you an army of thousands. None of them will disrespect you. Ignore all the work you've done. Throw you away only because you dared to disagree with his knee-jerk reaction--!
He will never take you back.
That's... fine. We're in this for revenge, remember?
More importantly--you don't need him.
We start at White Park. Amy, Rouge, and Cream are there for a very specific reason: rumors persist of a notorious person, Clutch the Opossum, holding a variety of parts from Eggman’s robots, including the E-series lines. Since they’re friends with Omega, they’re off to retrieve a critical part needed to complete his body.
Shadow’s also here based on the same rumor. However, he’s here to make sure no foolish person does what they please with those parts. While there, he spots a mysterious hooded person jumping around White Park Grand Chateau. Following them around, the hooded person turns around and thwacks a wooden log at them. Shadow’s dazed, but is then followed up by a powerful push from that person.
Shadow can lift a truck, I’m sure he could tank a wooden log being swung at him by Starline’s Tricore-powered hands. Also quit the beastly angry faces you’re giving Shadow, showing teeth and stuff like that. He doesn’t outwardly express himself like that. He’s subtle.
Meanwhile, from Tails’ area coverage. Haya and Tails are down in a nearby Eggman base that’s been abandoned for a while. The activation code for Omega’s body needs a cipher that’s on one of the Eggnet computers. While waiting for Tails to breach through the Eggnet, Haya leans on one of the walls, causing it to break open and reveal a peculiar sight: a bunch of Badniks huddled up together, with one larger robot reading them a story. Haya and Tails are pretty surprised, as is the robot. Meet Belle the Tinkerer.
In the original comic, Sonic knew about one of Eggman’s bases and said that he keeps tabs on stuff like that. …Why? Sonic doesn’t particularly care about Eggman, so why would he pay attention to where his bases are for stuff like this?
It’s absolutely insane Sonic would be acting this way. What the hell kind of Sonic did you write that wants to instantly go out to try and sucker-punch, spin dash, kick in the head, upper kick, and stomp the tail of a cowering girl? Then afterward, when done trying to attack, he starts justifying his decision to attack, leading Tails with the responsibility to apologize to Belle?? Sonic explains he gets stir-crazy being cooped up inside as if he didn’t spend 6 months in prison and came out really calm.
If the excuse here is that Sonic is running on a lack of sleep, that also doesn’t make sense. Chao Races and Badnik Bases should be taking place at least a few days after the Metal Virus Saga and Bad Guys; the Bad Guys miniseries took place over a few days, and here Starline developed the Tricore. Sonic would have had enough sleep not to act this insane around other people.
This is not the end of Sonic’s complete and utter dislike of Belle, as I’ll be noting down Every Single Unjustified Instance.
Belle, very happily, explains that her father is currently missing. In the meantime, she’s been trying to make friends with everyone along her path of searching. She hasn’t been having much luck with organic beings, nor Zombots, but she’s been having good luck with Badniks at least. Haya and Tails immediately deduce it’s a robot built during Eggman’s Mr. Tinker days. They try and explain, but Belle happily notes the inconsistency between Eggman and Mr. Tinker.
Yeah this is a very different version of Belle. You can count the amount of genuine smiles she’s given throughout the IDW run on one hand. In this version, Belle is coded to be a very happy girl, and that’s all she knows. It’s a pretty terrifying concept and unfortunately, Mr. Tinker didn’t have enough time to activate the more nuanced emotions in her.
Throughout this rewrite summary, imagine Belle being this perpetual smiler and optimist. And this makes sense even in the actual IDW run, as Belle canonically doesn’t even have free will.
With how Belle is much less robotic then other robot characters in Sonic with her seemingly having full free will and Starline even noting all the emotional responses data he got from her, would you say Belle is equal to that of a Reploid?
Belle is fully sentient and emotional, but I wouldn’t necessarily say she has free will; she still very much operates following the directives Tinker programmed into her, and has some obvious robotic behavior patterns. So not quite? But also, in the context of the story I don’t think that discounts her personhood. Robot intelligence in Sonic is weird and squishy and hard to classify.
So true. It’s a spectrum, so you should solidly pin down where she is in terms of that. But also, that Belle currently doesn’t have an arc where she’s gained free will is extremely iffy and it’s so weird the cast/narrative hasn’t commented on that yet. “As long as she’s good”, but the Sonic franchise has always focused on being ‘free’ rather than ‘good’.
Another thing this arc is weird about is this attempt at creating a mystery. Who is Belle’s creator? It doesn’t take half a cell to figure out that it was Mr. Tinker, so the change here is based on Belle having the arc to accept Mr. Tinker is gone.
I read some critiques about Belle and while some are okay, I've read some reaaaal stupid ones, such as her name. People are seriously hung up that her name is apparently based on a French word (speaking Japanese and English in Sonic doesn't need an explanation, but French does?), and implying giving her name the French word for 'beauty' is pedophilic. As if beauty is inherently sexual, fuck off.
Talking with Belle accidentally distracted Tails, causing the Egg Firewall to activate. Immediately, the robots inside activate their self-defense program and turn on Belle, along with those 2 other people. Taking Belle with them, Haya and Tails escape the base and get a message from Rouge to come meet her in White Park. Belle tries to return to the base, under the believe that she can change them, but Haya and Tails are worried she’ll get damaged and convince her otherwise, plus she saved Tails on several instances during the escape so they’re friends now.
So with nowhere else to go, Belle joins the duo back at White Park Chateau, with Tails flying a bit slower to get Belle caught up on riding the Tornado via its wings.
During their escape, Belle pushed Tails away from an Egg Keeper. Tails broke the robot, but Sonic just stood there. He’s even got a hand on his hip, so he wasn’t particularly bothered by her danger. Sonic then judges Belle’s kick reflex skill “weird”, as if his partner isn’t a fox with two tails.
After escaping and getting the call from Rouge, Belle asks for a ride alongside the Tornado. Sonic just… doesn’t answer. Sonic has to be reminded that Belle saved Tails’ life, someone that Sonic considers like a little brother, all the while having the moodiest face imaginable.
After grunting in frustration, Sonic smugly advises Belle to hold on to a wing and smiles calmly at Belle’s screams of fear. I genuinely have no idea what Belle has done to cause Sonic this much ire.
But what have the girls been up to? Gosh, well it’s just the same as in the comics, but with some slight differences… For instance, Gemerl stays out of commission due to being clawed at by Metal Haya. Rouge, instead of telling Cream on how to steal from other people, would sneak her out of Amy's view for a practical demonstration.
Amy is horrified when she finds out, though. Rouge is a terrible influence
Character interactions not locked behind dialogue boxes… Visual media sure is finicky.
Well anyway, Chao Races and Badnik Bases is a 4-issue arc, and I don’t really have any problems with its pacing. It's just a tad boring.
Perhaps I can just rush this arc in terms of summarization…
Rouge gets Clutch’s attention. She prepares a trap with Omega in the meantime but, as she exits Clutch’s apartment, she also gets hypnotized by Starline as part of his plan to get Tails. Shadow investigates who whacked him and enters Clutch’s apartment and sees the caged Chao along with Omega’s head. Omega explains his and Rouge’s trap, so he joins Omega to strike when the time will be right.
The girls later enter Clutch’s apartment for their trade with him: Cheese for E-series parts. Shadow then uncovers himself by striking Clutch. He’s knocked out… or so he seems. Done with his small plan, and confident the girls can handle Clutch, he continues his investigation of his mysterious assailant, but not before pointing the group to the caged Chao inside. Rouge’s hypnotism then activates, and she leaves to call Tails to meet at a far-away location. Amy is concerned, but trusts Rouge to go away like that.
Haya and Belle meet up with Amy and the two are led to Clutch’s place. While nobody can find the keys or destroy the cage without harming the Chao inside, Belle has the ability to tinker with the locks, so she might be able to free the Chao. Cream is happy for this help, and Haya looks proud.
While Cream is amazed and grateful for Belle’s help, Sonic is weirded out by Belle’s abilities and looks like he wants nothing to do with this. Really, he’d also be genuinely happy someone is this fast in stepping up to help others.
Amy is worried about Rouge being away for this long, so Haya promises to go out and find the two. Surprise, the possum character played possum. Clutch unleashes his 2 Snowies onto the girls as he makes his escape.
To balance out Amy and Cream’s actual strength, I added another Snowy bodyguard!
More of Eggman’s robots activate, Amy and Cream are ready to fight. Belle meanwhile is humming to herself, happily tinkering the cage’s lock as the robots are weirdly ignoring her.
Tails suddenly wakes up on a moving rollercoaster; he last remembered being attacked unconscious by Rouge with Omega's head. Rouge, also tied up, revealed that she had been hypnotized by an odd robed fellow. Haya appears and catches on board. The figure throws a rollercoaster cart and Haya dodges, but had to fall down. Underneath Haya was Shadow to catch him, though, and the two reconvene at this robed figure’s track. Well, robed figure…? This figure turns out to be Starline! To throw off the two even more, Starline activates an explosive high on one of the mountains, causing an avalanche.
Haya dashes down to save the people inside the chateau, while Shadow jumps over the tied captives to stop Starline. Rouge, not wanting to spend another second tied up, has managed to untie herself and yells out a codeword to Omega's head. Hearing it, Omega unleashes a piercing frequency, to the pain of Starline. He falls down and retreat using the Flight core. Shadow is inwardly angry at not having to face-off against his assailant, but Rouge talks him down to go help Haya. However, as Shadow leaves, Rouge activates a Bat Cracker and has its AI follow Starline…
At the Clutch zone, one of the Snowies has been wrecked as Amy and Cream perform a team-up move to destroy the second Snowy. By grabbing onto Amy, she flies up above, spindashes in the air before shooting Amy down towards the Snowy’s head, cleaving its head clean off into a projectile that drill through a bunch of Eggman’s robots. There are still some straggling robots left, but Belle manages to unlock the cage as the Chao are let loose to destroy the rest. Rouge and Tails barge onto the roof of Clutch’s room to quickly grab those E-100 Series parts as an avalanche is approaching.
Haya and Shadow arrive at the path the avalanche is headed. Using their superspeed, they manage to move the earth and block the gap the snow’s path is headed. However, the avalanche’s power is just too strong and broke through the earth, continuing its rampage forward.
You know what’s more amazing than cutting down the trees? Moving the earth itself, yet have mother nature defy you.
Rouge, Tails, Amy, Cream, Omega, and Belle head downstairs and get an Omochao to notify the residents to seek higher shelter. As the tenants go, Starline has one last attempt to try and get Tails. Rouge and Amy immediately go for the offensive and attack, Belle cheering on even though she has no context; she just likes supporting her friends in what they’re doing.
During the fight, Tails tries to get out of Starline’s path, but the platypus uses his tri-core’s Speed power and grabs Tails by the tails. Fortunately, Tails thinks fast and pulls on Belle’s tails, causing her to kick reflexively at Starline’s beak and sending him infront of a large window. Everyone flees upwards as Starline has to get back up again. Rouge’s Bat Cracker then reaches its destination and explodes, breaking the window and opening a hole for all the snow to then cover all of Starline. Before the snow reaches him however, he activates the Power in his Tri-Core to power through the impact.
The original comic had Starline be covered in snow along with the broken window. Starline could’ve been sliced into bits by glass shards and wood shrapnel, but he only had to take a shower to be fine again. So I’m changing it to have the glass break first before the snow arrives.
It’s a good thing the White Park Chateau was built to withstand an avalanche. As the storm stops, Amy steps onto snow to hear if the two hedgehogs are nearby. Rouge doubts what she’s doing, but she hammers the snow where they’re at, loosening it enough for the two hedgehogs to spindash out of there.
As everyone reconvenes, Haya hears about Belle’s help and he congratulates her on having helped everyone. She bows, and is then asked by Tails if she could help him with something at his workshop. Belle happily accepts.
Back at the workshop, with help from Belle, Omega’s body is fully fixed up and operational. Vanilla arrives to come pick up Cream and she tells her of the exciting adventure she just had. Vanilla is, of course, frazzled by this, but saw this as inevitable and is happy there’s no scratch on Cream.
My, Cream’s friends are always so busy.
Also I wouldn’t have the all-loving Amy throw Rouge under the bus.
Outside, Haya thanks Shadow for the help. Shadow doesn’t respond. Inside, Belle is happily sweeping the floors as Tails is staring at what he’s dreaded scanning from Belle: Eggtech. He looks at Belle who’s doing a little dance while sweeping. Already, Tails has deduced that Belle must’ve been created by Mr. Tinker, but can only stare back down at his tablet as he tries thinking on how to break to her that her father is Eggman. He’s then startled by Belle offering him coffee; nice and strong, no milk and lots and lots of sugar. Tails tries it, but it’s too strong for a young fox to drink and he coughs it out. "Do you like it?" Belle asks happily and Tails weakly thumbs ups.
Starline had survived the snow and is back at his lab. While he couldn’t get Tails, he’s atleast got his DNA strain in the form of his fur. What will he do with it? Hmm…
You would think Clutch would’ve been reported by anyone there, right? Amy, Cream, Rouge… Amy still has a high authority in the Restoration.
So how come no one reported Clutch’s activities to the authorities after the events of [Chao Races and Badnik Bases] despite there being several witnesses.
Mostly because it wasn’t relevant to the plot of CRABB, or appropriate for the tone of a Sonic story. Generally if we see any sort of law enforcement, they’re serving as an obstacle to whatever our heroes are doing (see: SA1-2). Villains tend to get their comeuppance through other means.
Also, the finer points of how government and law enforcement works on the islands is a major blind spot in the series’ worldbuilding. Not just in the comic, the whole franchise. If I were to to move the story in that direction, I’d be stepping on SEGA’s toes and perhaps establishing things they don’t want to deal with.
But if the story were to go that way, I’ve got a a couple reasons why it wouldn’t work:
-Rouge, the key witness, would NEVER go to the cops what with her being an internationally-famous thief and spy.
-Clutch absolutely has the White Park law enforcement in his pocket. Any report made against him would conveniently go missing.
My reasoning isn’t watertight, and perhaps if there’s time it’d be worth putting in a throwaway line to plug that plothole. But for now, that’s the reasoning goin’ on behind the scenes.
As we’ll come to see later, not being “appropriate for the tone of a Sonic story” doesn’t hold much scrutiny when you create Surge and Kit. Amy also doesn’t think to report it? Or create a blacklist with Clutch’s face front and center?? Also isn’t Rouge in kahoots with the president???
Not sure many people were clamoring for a Zeti arc, but they were placed here and so they have to leave ASAP.
Also, what the heck?? Zeti Hunt and Test Run are swapped?? Chao Bases and Test Run I feel are Belle-centric stories, so I want to space them apart. Plus, as I’ve said again, these Zeti need to go.
The story starts with Zavok, still hurt and leaning against an Egg Knight. He quietly rests against a tree and closes his eyes. His time here on Haya’s World had made him suffer greatly, loss after loss and, if he’d be lesser, he’d scream out in frustration. Instead, he huffs out a light fire out of his mouth before continuing his journey. “Find the Zeti.”
Oh we’re not starting with Haya and Eggman? Well I’m not sure why Eggman is out in Winterburg suddenly hunting Zeti now. Also I wanna point out a quote from the original comic. ;p
Back to “Baldy McNosehair” it is then!
That’s not funny! It’s never been funny! It’s never going to be funny!
Abridged reference be darned, just adding this quote here to show Flynn is making fun of the franchise, meaning I can pull the same punches. Also, if you believe I’ve been rude to Flynn in this page, look at how people have been treating Pontac and Graff.
I’m so happy [Pontac and Graff are] not writing for the games anymore because, fuck me, I would’ve found them and dropkicked them myself had there been any more writing like this.
Healthy thing to talk about a writer like that. 14 thousand likes on the video too! Anyway here's a quote from Warren Graff that says all of the writing decisions came from Sega
Correction, Ken and I wrote a million drafts for each game. Each draft got a ton of character and story notes from Sega/Sonic Team. Every word we wrote, every character trait, and every story point was given to us by them or based on the Sonic Game Bible. We had very little say. Don't get me wrong. I loved my time with Sega, everyone was amazing. We just didn't have a lot of creative freedom, which is understandable. It's their most important IP. They are rightfully protective of it. I would be too.
Riverside is Zavok’s first destination. Everything’s turned pristine and he spots Zazz has been splayed out and forced to cook out in the sun. He yells out to himself that he doesn’t wanna be a cooked egg before greeting Zavok. Zavok grabs Zazz by the neck and rips him out of his bounds before ordering the destruction of the city.
A verbal comedy of Zazz talking about eggs and physical comedy with Zavok ripping Zazz out of his bounds by the neck. Zazz is funny too, not just crazy. Also he's got that mech of his to cause further destruction, so it wouldn't make sense for him to be out of town to try and hunt fish.
Now in Vista Vew, Zomom is put inside a cramped box, with his fat being squished out of the box’s bars. Some kids are throwing food in his face, and he’s genuinely trying to give them pitching advice only so they can aim into his mouth. Class is over though, as Zazz emerges with his Moon Mech and destroys the cage holding Zomom. Finally, he can now eat without having it be thrown at him. Definitely an improvement.
I write “pitching advice” here, but Zomom’s an idiot so all he can say is “THROW BETTER! THROW LOWER! THROW HARDER!”
On their way to the next town, Zavok wonders why all of their towns has been cleaned up and repaired. Zazz promises he tore it down, and Zomom definitely remembers eating some of the walls. That’s when Master Zik, along with Zeena and Zor, reconvenes and reveals how that happened. They’re in a state pretty adept at rebuilding and recovering extraterritiorial cities: the United Federation.
Honestly, good thing. Most of the IDW locations are implied to be close to Central City, or atleast on the continent housing it. It’s all thanks to them drawing Tails’ House from Sonic Battle that implies it.
Zavok’s plan? Enter its capital and destroy their leader. They’ll be so harrowed that nobody will stand in their way. However, Zik tells them that their destruction has caused a pattern to form, so they’ll need to distract everyone. Very well, destroy any towns outside of the Federation’s jurisdiction before retreating into Central City.
Reports about Orchardville being attacked by horned demons are being sent, and so the Chaotix are called to figure out who they could be. Well, obviously it’s the Deadly Six, and with the path they’re headed, they might be headed to towns like Winterburg.
Enter Haya. He had just finished destroying one of Eggman’s bases, escaping the explosion with a piece of metal acting as snowboard. Eggman curses him and flies away. Haya then gets contacted by Tails that the Zeti have all grouped up and might be headed to Winterburg. Good thing Haya can just rest up in that village, so he’s just laying down with a cup of hot chocolate he created by dumping a bar of chocolate inside of it.
Why did Haya do that?
Tails is in his Lab with Belle and unveils his Zeti Zapper and Zeti Launcher. The former will disable their electro-magnetic powers, and the latter will return them to Lost Hex. Belle praises the genius invention, but Vector is worried if things could go wrong. Haya assures him to trust Tails’ gizmos.
Oh boy, oh no, the Deadly Six used their big jump abilities to then land in the heard of Central City. Zomom crushes a car under his weight, Zeena breaks all of the shopping glass. Just madness, me thinks. The Chaotix start rushing back to Central City, Haya dashes off, and Tails is quick to pack up his stuff to head there. Tails asks if Belle can watch over the lab, and she happily salutes before Tails enters a truck to haul the Zeti Launcher.
Nobody’s prepared for the chaos, but thankfully there are some people quick to arms. Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin were at the hair saloon, having their hair salooned, before hearing the commotion outside. Whisper naturally pulls out the Wispon she always has under her cloak to drive back the Zeti, Tangle is helping pull in barricades with her tail, and Lanolin uses her bell to create platforms for civilians to safely cross the now-cracked terrain.
They’re making good effort, but soon become no match for the Zeti. Zavok electrocutes Whisper by interfering with her mask, causing Tangle to then rashly launch her tail at Zavok. Zavok effortlessly grabs her tail, spins her around, then has her fly off to who knows where. Lanolin’s NOT a fighter, so she grabs the dazed Whisper and retreats out of there. The group nears the White House, but are then ambushed by Rouge.
It should be important to note that Rouge works with the President. This is a point that Sonic Pict and Sonic Comic have reiterated.
No way are they gonna reach the President, so Rouge will have to fight them off until GUN arrives. She’s doing a pretty good job too, dodging strikes and throwing her bombs to daze the members. Of course, it’s a 6v1, so Rouge incorrectly predicted Zazz and she gets jumped. Fashionably late, Haya dashes into the scene and has them release Rouge. Haya then fights them on, with assistance from Rouge.
Zavok figures out that the bombs Rouge sends are homing, so he redirects the bombs in their direction. So sad. They’re incapacitated now. But oh joy, Tails is now here and quickly drops the Zeti Zappers on each member. Although they can’t use their electro-magnetic powers, they’re still strong enough to tear them apart.
But it’s over now. GUN has arrived; Shadow is hanging on one of the exhaust pipes of a GUN military truck. They’re surrounded, and fighting now would be a death sentence. Shadow stares at Zavok; he knows his zombified self got thrown onto Angel Island, like a projectile, like a weapon. Careless.
Tails unloads his truck and shows them the Zeti Launcher. Rouge asks if they can’t just throw the lot in prison, but Tails says that Lost Hex is their prison. The Zeti counter that they’ll return, that they’ll come back and hit harder. Haya wishes them good luck, which only infuriates them.
Yeah no discussion about morality. Sorry lol.
…because at the end of the day, when you’re having a discussion like [Sonic’s morality], or having a thematic discussion like that, what you end up on is the one that’s considered the correct position, especially if the one that you end on doesn’t get countered in any way. And, while I would argue the [Metal Virus arc] itself should be a counter, when we get to the end of, I believe, #44, Sonic reflects on everything and still just decides to say “I’m standing by my positions instead of getting into my fear.” Like, I get that they’re supposed to be counterarguments, but there are supposed to be two sides of that argument. But when one basically gets a page, and the other basically gets the entire half of the chapter and that half of the chapter is never given a direct counterargument, how is that not undercutting?
I can see where you’re coming from, but at the same time, this book is not meant to be a balanced moral debate.
As the Zeti board the rocket and it flies off, Tails gets a notification and is visibly concerned: the power to the lab has been cut off. He can’t get Belle, so he contacts the Chaotix to check out what’s going on.
Busting through the front door, the Chaotix find Tails’ Workshop to be trashed. The lights are off, but they quickly adjust their eyesifght to see Belle laying on the floor, deactivated. They also see Starline, who had just finished ejecting his USB port out of Belle.
The Chaotix are disgusted at Starline, and they start shooting whatever they can on the low upstart. Unfortunately, his Tri-Core allows him to dodge every last bullet before he makes a beeline out of the lab. Vector heads to Belle’s deactivates body and shakes it awake.
Belle activates, but is confused as to what happened. All she saw was Starline entering the lab before everything went dark. Her logs do indicate that her security’s been breached while deactivated and starts falsely justifying what had happened before repeating “I don’t understand” to herself over and over–her programming doesn’t allow for any negativity. Charmy doesn’t understand, Espio stands solemnly, and Vector brushes her hair.
In the original comic, Belle can cry. I don’t know why Tinker installed that in her.
Welcome to a true showcase of Belle's horror. She was just violated, but her programming of only thinking positively doesn't allow her to get to grips that what had just happened. What happened is horrible, there's nothing positive to pull, and she's just unable to understand. She can't understand.
Starline’s a sick person here, and this is just foreshadowing of his horrible control over Surge and Kit much later.
The Zeti are back on Lost Hex, the Lava Mountain area to be exact. As promised, the rocket disassembles itself and their Zeti Zappers deactivate. Although dismayed, Zavok rallies their team spirit yet again. They’re warriors, and survived a harsh world. Soon, they’ll return and return the favor tenfold.
We start back at Tails’ Workshop. Long time no seen, and Belle continues to work as Tails’ assistant. A small extension has been built in the lab for Belle to make herself at home.
In IDW, this arc mainly starts with Belle’s integration with the Restoration, aka.: character purgatory. Her first day there doesn’t really develop her character and is more meant to showcase how horrible of a time she’s having; the Chief Mechanic even implies to destroy Belle if she doesn’t leave soon. Haha, very funny, a psychotic murderer as the chief mechanic...
My decision to have Belle live at Tails’ Workshop is based on 2 things: The fact the Restoration doesn’t exist in this rewrite, and this is largely based on Mario lore; Mario’s house in games like Super Mario RPG and Dr. Mario 64 gained a green extension in Paper Mario when Luigi starting living with Mario again.
While Belle helps around the workshop, her boundless optimism is her own flaw as she doesn’t consider any negatives, causing circuits to overload and many other accidents. Tails isn’t entirely bothered by this, but wants her to learn how to critically analyze a situation before executing it.
Oh look, Tangle swings on by and uses her tail to hold onto a falling airplane caused by Belle’s reflexive kick. Tangle introduces herself to Belle and declares eachother tail buddies. Belle in response gives a happy, but comedically professional disclaimer about not pulling her tail without proper authorization.
Tangle even calls out the Restoration to be stickled with rules and regulations. Why is this a Sonic location, and especially one portrayed as a positive force? Later on, Tangle is absolutely depressed with having Restoration donations to catalogue. I’m telling you – The Restoration is character purgatory because she can quit at any time. Unfortunately, Jewel became unimportant, so she got tossed in there like the rest of them, and Tangle doesn't like leaving behind her best friend. Destroy the Restoration!! They haven't done anything!! Why is there a 16-year-old (Jewel) in control of this entire organization??
Haya arrives at Tails’ place, carrying Amy. Amy explains that people living close to coast have been seeing a giant Star Post off the coast, one with 4 giant electric orbs floating around it causing flash floods, storms, and the long-reaching power outages which reached Amy's apartment.
Did you know that this tower doesn’t even have an official name? I’m serious here. Sonic Wiki Zone doesn’t even have an article for it because of that. The IDW Sonic Hub Wiki does have an article and gives it the conjectural name “Eggman’s Tower”. This is another point to bring up about IDW Sonic; a lot of IDW locations go unnamed until several issues (months) later. The IDW Sonic Hub Wiki has a whole disambiguation article for previously unnamed towns.
Vista View, the first location of this comic’s run, didn’t get named until issue 13, like almost a year later. Locations are a character in their own right, with history and culture leading audiences to want to know more about it. Name them.
So Haya, Tails, and Amy prepare to head off with the Tornado to stop this tower. Tangle wants to join, and Haya’s all for it, but Tails really doesn’t want Belle to be alone after what happened previously, so he has Tangle watch over her. The trio arrive at the base and destroy the robots guarding the entrance. Amy knocks the door into the base open, but that force causes the portal inside to react and suck all three inside.
Back at the workshop, Tangle is bored. She then gets an idea and asks Belle to join her in joining the rest of the trio. Not able to see anything negative about this plan, Belle accepts and the two ride on the Big Bang towards their direction.
Having Tangle initiate the adventure would make more sense than Belle, who’d have no idea if Mr. Tinker is on that tower. Where did she even get the idea from? Just a guess? That’s incredibly risky to hotwire and possibly cause an accident with the Big Bang for.
Back at the trio, they’ve managed to enter a digital world where the three are in outer space. Space-themed robots such as asteroids or suns are swiftly destroyed by the three. With Tails’ deduction, he has Amy destroy a dwarf planet, which then turns into green framework that turns into a gridline that forms into the path forward.
I can't just let the Classic IDW stories hog all the fun level gimmicks and enemy designs.
After entering another portal, the three suddenly find themselves in… a regular boring town. All the buildings are the same, aligned the same, and with dull red, green, white, or blue house paint.
This would be an honestly weird location if all the previous IDW locales weren’t just blocky buildings. I’m also having a more extreme contrast by having this exciting space adventure before having them land in this bleak and empty town.
They enter inside a house and find a dummy sitting on the table, again a full-on dull yellow color. Odd…
Belle and Tangle arrive at the tower and enter inside, passing by a deactivated portal. Belle tries humming happily, but Tangle shushes her since they’re supposed to be stealthy. Climbing up the scaffolding of the main room, they overhear Orbot and Cubot on the main desk activating the portals. They’ve seen Haya, Tails, and Amy inside the test chambers and are dreading contacting Eggman. However, their dread turns to confusion as Eggman seems delighted to their welcome.
Belle is also delighted with Eggman’s voice; it brings her back to the past. This reminiscing causes her grip on the desk platform to fall, making her fall onto the bridge below. Tangle tries grabbing her, but the trotting Egg Pawns would see her. Belle, aloof of the danger, stands up and welcomes herself to them. She shakes their hand and… their eyes turn pink? The Pawn looks at their own hands, confused, and starts walking with the rest of the group, confused and with a more lively walk.
Welcome to Belle's special ability: pacifying Eggman's robots. It's how she managed to read bedtime stories to those robots back in Chao Races. Of course, a simple command would override Belle's Pacification back into their original programming
When the Pawns leave, Tangle hoists Belle back up and stares at her in confusion before continuing on investigating. Belle smiles.
Inside the simulation, the trio finally get Eggman speeching to them, his word spread all throughout the tacky furniture. He explains the simulations are for testing wide-scale invasions, the resources for doing so requiring a lot of electricity, hence the tower generating storms.
They never really wrote why the tower was causing storms and floods.
No way are the three gonna let Eggman continue, but Eggman already sent his horde of robotic troops to the house they’re in. After destroying the lot of them, Eggman changes the environment of the town they’re in. The scaffolding breaks, shakes, and the tiles are even rumbling too. The group hold onto the earthquake that’s happening until they see what has happened–the town has turned into a group of monster houses!
The final boss of this arc always was a bit funny to me. The arena’s a blank background that artists don’t have to draw on, and there are four Egg Viper recolors, with one of them just being the original red. Also I think the art is just plain unfinished? When Tangle gives herself brain damage on the green Egg Viper, Adam Bryce Thomas gets switched with Evan Stanley and the coloring suddenly gets shaded. Genuinely looks like a bootleg.
That’s why I’m making the town itself the boss of this arc. Not only is it more visually interesting and creative, but having towns assimilate into fighting for Eggman would foreshadow Eggperial Tower and its ability to assimilate the nearby ground.
The fight is on. One of the houses grabs a lamp post like a rod and aims it at the heroes, the lamp post shoots a deadly laser beam that the three avoid. Another one, a windmill tower, shoots a strong gust of air that flies the three up into the air. Then finally, one of the angel fountain statues shoots a piercing blade of water right at them.
The perspective shifts to a tablet showing a feed of one of the monster houses. Tangle and Belle are watching cautiously and somewhat worried, Tangle already haven entangled Orbot and Cubot. They stare at many of the portals littered about the main room, even ones high up on the wall, wondering which one leads to Haya and Co… Belle comes up with the idea to track the location of the monster house’s feed and redirect one of the portals here to a nearby portal close to the fight.
Tangle enters inside while having her tail attached to one of the nearby poles. Now with the three alone, Orbot and Cubot try asking Belle what her deal is. Belle happily explains that she’s the daughter of Mr. Tinker, which caused the two robots to ask her more about what he was like; the duo only had a few seconds with this Mr. Tinker persona, after all. To Belle, Mr. Tinker treated her like a daughter, always ready to help the villagers, and always served Tinker the same coffee. Strong, no milk. "Oh, oh, and lots of sugar, right?" Orbot interrupts, but Belle is shocked how they know what kind of coffee Tinker likes.
This swapping of conversations will not only help develop Belle’s character and her past, or Orbot and Cubot’s longing to not be abused by Eggman, but it also sparks a friendly relationship between Belle and the two lackeys. The original comic simply reiterated the point of them being helpers of Eggman, which doesn’t add much.
Before Orbot and Cubot explain, a sudden video call from Eggman interrupts the three of them; that blasted lemur got in and the two haven’t told him about it. Belle happily explains that they’re having a nice conversation. Hearing that familiar voice causes Eggman to turn on autopilot before taking off his VR helmet. He takes a good long look at Belle, then realizes that this is a creation of his.
Belle remarks how Eggman looks and sounds strikingly similar to Mr. Tinker, asking him if he’s a close relative to him. Eggman laughs at how naive his delusional alter-ego made his creation, then tells straight up how she’s the result of arbitrary circumstances of a brain damaged simpleton. He tells Belle that he’s cured now, that he doesn’t need her, and explains how his unrestrained virtual reality tower is more superior than some rollercoaster in a shed.
He then proposes to join him; make her better, make her fit more in-line with the Eggman Empire...
...
Belle violently throws away the tablet in response, causing it to shatter and turn off. Orbot and Cubot ask why she did that, but Belle can’t answer–all of her answers are negative, but her programming has forced out this negativity, so she's just blankly confused.
What if I make Eggman a tad bit more cruel? He’s usually like that to his creations. Belle is also allowed this freak-out; these are very special circumstances for her. You’re programmed as a happy helpful girl, you’re praised by your creator, all is well. Your creator then disappears, you’re now aimlessly wandering the world trying to find happiness. Later on, you find your creator again and tells you that you’re useless and that you’re not good enough–you should be something else. But you’ve been a happy helpful girl, right? Wasn’t that what her creator only wanted out of her? Her programming conflicted with what she should be feeling, and thus she freaked out.
The portal is somewhat reverberating. Orbot explains that objects shouldn’t be left in energy tunnels for too long as it would create a feedback loop and cause an implosion from under its own energy weight. Oh well…
Haya, Tails, Amy, and Tangle have been wrecking the houses meanwhile. Tangle’s been controlling the light posts to redirect the laser beams towards the houses, Haya smashes the fountains, Amy is parrying the blows of fists made out of street curbs, and Tails has been throwing tiny shrapnel that could lead directly to where the core controller could be. They’re doing a good job.
Autopilot is disengaged, and Eggman is enraged at the state that the street is in. Eggman then has all the robots attack at once. Tangle’s tail is lightly tugged by Belle, which she’s indicating is time for everyone to go. She holds on tight to Haya and Amy (Tails can fly) as they all exit out of the street simulation and back into the tower. Belle calmly explains that the portal’s compressing energy has created a vortex, which will suck up everything into a massive implosion. The possibility of escaping are low.
But Haya likes those odds. Everyone holds onto Haya as everyone boards on the Tornado before the tower shrinks onto itself before completely disappearing. In his mancave, Eggman’s VR helmet zaps him a small bit.
Sunset falls, and everyone finally starts talking on the Tornado. Tangle asks what to do with Orbot and Cubot, and Belle suggests to just leave them be–they’ve been nice to her. Orbot and Cubot then want to use this opportunity for some R&R before falling off of the plane. Haya wishes them later before continuing to stare ahead. Tails remarks on Belle making this decision and asks what’s up. Belle doesn’t want to, but Amy chimes in that they’re friends, and understanding eachother makes eachother happy.
Belle nods then explains what had happened in her call with Eggman. After breaking the tablet, she’s conflicted about what she should do now that her father is most likely gone: follow her programming to please the father she loves, or follow the Eggman Empire to please the father she saw. Everyone is quiet, but Haya then asks her what she wants out of herself; without what either of her fathers want. Belle has yet to calculate a decision, which Haya finds okay–as long as she finds her own path. Tails then breaks up the conversation to tell everyone that the storm has cleared up, so it should be a smooth flight back.
Haya would look a bit more sympathetic towards Belle’s talk at the Tornado. I dunno, he looked really angry at her and didn’t say anything in the original comic.
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 though 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???
‘s Not all that interesting, if I’m being honest.
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!
