Feel free to share your thoughts about it after reading.
Anyhow, this fan article is called, "What the Hell, Hero?" (his words in bold, not mine)
Now, you might be wondering why I'm making a post out of a TV Trope, but trust me, it's relevant. A 'What the Hell, Hero', is when someone calls out the good guy for being an asshole. In my opinion, something that Archie's Sonic needs. Badly.
And, since this is me, it involves Fiona. Hey, if we can all be broken records about Mecha Sally, I can keep raging about Fiona's mutilation until it gets fixed. Not retconned. Fixed.
See, this is something that's part of Fiona's backstory, and the ultimate origin of her lack of trust for anyone. When Fiona was very young, about eight or nine, I'd guess, her village was bulldozed, and her parents killed (According to one version of her backstory) by Robotnik Prime's forces. Fiona was captured and taken to a prison camp. There, she was used as slave labor and for scientific experimentation, to the point that Robotnik was able to build a perfect replica of her. Which is kind of creepy. In fact, it makes my skin crawl. I think Sally might have a contender for "Worst treatment of a teen Mobian by fat old human".
In any case, at some point in this, Fiona met Sonic, NotSonicMighty, and NotTailsRay. They all got caught; but naturally, the four of them staged a breakout. Ray got stuck to a magic rock that stopped him from aging, Fiona got recaptured, but Sonic and Mighty got away. Sonic promised he would return for Fiona...
And promptly proceeded to never return ever. Mighty eventually went back... for Ray. After Fiona had already broken out. And the camp was abandoned. And Robotnik died. But did Sonic?
Nope. He actually betrayed the trust of a girl whom he is two or three years older than, and had been stuck in there and tortured, after her home was torched and her family killed (Probably). Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!
And not only did this happen, but it has never been explained. Not even by Ian "Tie-up-every-loose-thread-even-if-it-makes-no-sense" Flynn. Fiona called Sonic out on his behavior once. No apology, no explanation. No-one else ever addresses it. Not even Tails, who was preportedly so in love with Fiona that he ended up fighting Sonic over her, and knew about this, because he was there when she explained her backstory!
And wait people, it gets better!
Through some miracle, Fiona turned out to be a good person anyway. Or maybe I should say thankfully, or Sonic would end up with a one-vixen hit squad after him. Not that she wouldn't be kind of cool like that, but still. This is actually a refreshing change from the usual, and it makes Fiona a rather original, interesting character. It's nice to see someone in this comic and comics in general who is mature enough to rise above their personal grudges. In this sense, Fiona is a unique and interesting character.
She joined the Freedom Fighters, and after Sonic arrived back on Mobius, and first Comic That Must Not Be Numbered was unleashed on the unsuspecting masses, Fiona started to fall for Sonic. Their relationship lasted for almost twenty issues, which is surprisingly long for something that isn't Sonic/Sally.
Enter Flynn, who decided that turning Evil Sonic green, overpowering him, and so on wasn't enough like a bad fanfiction, and he needed a girlfriend. But not just any girl, no, the one that two of the heroes both want. So Fiona gets derailed into cheating on Sonic with Scourge, which is OOC even for Scourge, because he's a possessive little psychopath who would not want Sonic being anywhere near 'his girl' (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little).
So Fiona is now evil and boring. Everything that made her unique and interesting? Gone. What have we got instead? A childish hypocrite with a 'feels good to be bad' mentality. Are we sure that this isn't Anti-Fiona? Either way, Flynn's not finished with the derailment.
Enter 179, which, if you must know, is number two on my "Worst crap Flynn has ever pulled" list (Mecha Sally and 172 are joint first). In this issue, we find out that Sonic was never interested in Fiona; he was just doing it because he thought it would make Tails move on. Because, you know, the best thing to do when your best friend is nuts about a girl is try and nail her yourself, right? RIGHT?
Anyway, it's time to bring in the fridge logic. Sonic doesn't tell Tails this until seven issues have past. It's heavily implied, from Fiona and Scourge's dialogue, that everyone, Fiona included, believed Sonic's feelings for Fiona to be genuine.
Let me just repeat that. For eighteen months of the comic's run, Fiona was in a relationship that was a complete and utter sham, and she never knew about it. Sonic never told her. In other words, in order to protect his friend, he seduced, manipulated, and used an innocent (At the time) young girl, whose trust in him was already shaky at best. Again, our hero, ladies and gentlemen!
But wait, there's more! This plan pretty much backfires from step one. All it does is drive a rift between Sonic and Tails. So of course, Sonic is going to give up on the plan, patch things up with Tails, and avoid hurting Fiona any more than he already had, right? Wrong. He keeps going. He keeps lying to her and using her, even when it's having the opposite of the desired effect.
Time for two separate fridge logic theories.
1) Fiona complained that Sonic was boring, a far cry in contrast to how Sally, Amy, and Mina saw him. And that's because he wasn't interested in the relationship. Sonic managed to bore Fiona into cheating on him.
2) Fiona found out that Sonic was using her, and flips. Her image of him was once again shattered, and she once again found herself broken and betrayed by him. She was now certain that she couldn't trust anyone, because every time she did, she got hurt. She ended up seeking comfort from another man, who pretended to care about her, until she snapped and left Sonic altogether.
Of course, Sonic explains that he never loved Fiona to Tails... and Tails immediately forgives him. No comment about using Fiona. No comment about continuing the sham after it had failed. No question as to whether Fiona herself was in on it. No complaints about Sonic taking away Tails' chance to win Fiona over. Come on, Tails, you loved this girl enough to punch Sonic in the face over her. How about being in-character when Sonic says he used her without an iota of remorse for her feelings on the matter? Seriously, that panel of Tails punching Sonic in the face from 178 should probably be repeated about six times after that scene.
Sure, you can say that Fiona deserves no remorse after 172, but really? She was lied to and betrayed by Sonic twice. Both times are directly linked to her fall to evil, moreso than any other events in her life. In a way, you could almost say that Sonic himself is directly responsible for Fiona's fall to evil. You know what kind of character does this? A villain!
Say what you will about STC Sonic, but as a reader and fan of STC, I can assure you that he would never stoop so low as to do either of these things to someone, let alone both of them to the same girl. So there, you have it, more reasons why I think Archie's Sonic is a despicable, intolerable asshole. And, no, Flynn has never addressed this. He's always keen to gloss over it in flashbacks.
Believe it or not, I can’t actually find a way around this one myself. I've done the rant, drawn comparison to something better, so this is the part where I come up with a solution that would fix everything, right? Right? Wrong. There is no solution. What Flynn (And Penders) had Sonic do to Fiona was utterly irredeemable. The only excuse I can come up with is 'Mephiles made him do it'. And when your only excuse is "Blame Satan!", then we have a problem.
And Flynn expects us to see this guy as the hero of the comic... Yeah, not happening.
