274 replies to this topic

[ILOVEVHS]

Nah. That story only works in that continuity.

[Skylar]

I remember Kid Chameleon...

Anyways, it would be nice to answer that question with said build-up. However, according to SatAm, he's been blue ever since he was a kid. Also, his uncle, Charels, is a shade of light blue, so maybe the hedgehogs were originally white.

Spoiler

Silver the Hedgehog

In fact, maybe hedgehogs will eventually become black... no need for a spoiler box...

[Hammer]

Let's introduce many different colors for hedgehogs then! Mwahahahahaha!

What I meant is that it would be funny to have a minor character who is also a hedgehog and looks like a real one (separate spines, brown and such) and have Sonic comment something like "You're no real hedgehog".

[Aizen90]

In order to entertain the idea of new characters, we would also need to know what context they will exist and to what capacity they could impact the story. One of the biggest mistakes Archie made in my opinion was diluting the core cast with all of SEGA's characters. This muddled the story and for several issues at a time they could tear the focus away from the SatAM cast. We will avoid doing this at all costs.

This is not to say outright that other characters could no be added. Their roles however, must be directly related to the impact they will have the story, big or small. So I urge anyone who makes suggestions on which characters to add to give us an idea on how they would be implemented. Keep in mind that most of the Archie universe and it's characters are older than the current cast. Tails, for example is very young, which would make adding a potential love interest for him (I.E Fiona Fox), very difficult.

I still think Amy will make an interesting addition to the cast. But since this is the SatAM universe, in which characters aren't like their current depiction, her overall character will have to be altered quite a bit. Like have her be a bossy, stubborn girl (about Tails' age) that has great difficulty showing weakness, but is easily prone to jealousy and emotional fits of rage. Her lessons could revolve around her not jumping to conclusions, especially in judgment of others.

Here's my idea for a introduction story. Maybe Tails gets tired of being left behind during missions and decides to become a full-fledged Freedom Fighter on his own. So at night, he, along with other children living in Knothole (Amy included), get together and form a secret club sworn to defend the Great Forest from any threat while the Freedom Fighters are out during missions (sorta like The Lost Boys meets The Goonies).

I figured this could be a good way of developing Tails' character more, as well as introducing Amy into the series without her overshadowing anyone else. This could also introduce newer characters to the mix, like the always-mentioned but unseen children residing in Knothole. We never saw them in the series (except for Tails), so what's stopping them from making an appearance?

Fantastic response! This was very well thought out and much appreciated. I don't think you missed a single one of my requested points. This type of logical argument makes it much easier for the S3 staff, and or other forum members, to have discussions based around this topic.

Quoting from a few pages ago here but I had to point out something, I'm not sure why logiteeka suggested that idea about Tails because he's already becoming practically a full member of the freedom fighters, I think the fact that he was involved in a full fight with Snively & Naugas and lived proves that the comic's going to continue to develop this and very soon he will be a 100% full time member of the freedom fighters, and it's what everyone has suggested should happen for years if there was ever a season 3, it was one of the most settled on plot elements, and what everyone's always wanted to happen, and it's already basically happened in the comic, so there's no reason for any 'Tail's get's pissed at Sonic/the other characters for unfairly leaving him out' plot, the comic's already gone far away from that.

[Skylar]

So, I'm just gon' go out on a limb to suggest a character. Hopefully, I'll touch all the requested points in one go.

Cream the Rabbit

She could be one of the children in Knothole, though that would be considered void, and I'lll explain. You see, Cream is extremely devouted to her mother. In the game Sonic Advance 2, she insisted Sonic take her with him since Eggman still had Vanilla captured. So, since the only rabbiy we see in the anime is Bunnie, then Cream can't just be another Knothole resident.

According to my findings, the comic mentions entire sections that are virgin to the Eggman touch. However, like in the war of 1812 (america/britan) they could have received that news when it was already old news. Maybe, by that tme, Dr.R had 'moved into' these areas that were untouched. Cream, being a swift runner, was one of several who escaped, yet she was the only one who found the tree trunk to Knothole. Looking for shelter, hoping not to be caught, she went into the trunk, inly to find herself in the Santuary of Nature: Knothole.

Because of her devotion to family/friends, she will easily obey orders, even if I means putting off Vanilla's rescue. She's polite, so sh might no be subject to peer pressure. (IE: LogiTeeka's mini FF group) She'll help however she can in any way she can, even if there's no way to help. She'll be persistent about her views, but she knows when to 'draw the line' if that makes sense.

She won't be a 'useless' character because she can be used as a decoy, bait, and to help Tails and the oters with small tasks, allowing the actually FF to do more fighting, and the Other FF children to continue to guard the Santuary.

So, how'd I do? Nail everyhing?

Let's introduce many different colors for hedgehogs then! Mwahahahahaha!

What I meant is that it would be funny to have a minor character who is also a hedgehog and looks like a real one (separate spines, brown and such) and have Sonic comment something like "You're no real hedgehog".

That sounds like Silver the Hedgehog, but brown.

[Uncle Ben]

Let's introduce many different colors for hedgehogs then! Mwahahahahaha!

What I meant is that it would be funny to have a minor character who is also a hedgehog and looks like a real one (separate spines, brown and such) and have Sonic comment something like "You're no real hedgehog".

We are not doing recolors... we dont need a Scrooge Fiasco again

[Skylar]

No offense, but you, I, nor anybody else who is not in the Inner Sanctum of Knowledge of Big Boss has the final say so. Besides, we're just brain storming. Two major rules of brain storming are "be spontaneous", and "don't judge ideas on the spot". Unluckily, for some (grin) Amy has a darn good chance of being intergrated into the comic. I'm not saying she will/won't be in the comic, but only that she stands a damn good chance.

[Laura Blue]

Personally I NEVER want to see the newer SEGA game characters in Sea3on.

Aside from the plot confusion and "we have to somehow make it all fit" sense of urgency I get out of Archie's Sonic as a result, there is an aesthetic quality that does not match.

It didn't occur to me until recently, but there was something very appealing and indeed SPECIAL that Sonic was the only character colored in a way that didn't seem to fit naturally in that world. He "popped", stood out. Even Uncle Chuck was a more silvery blue, making you imagine his coloring was due to age and probably never as bright as Sonic.

The world was earthy, brown, natural. Sonic was partially an excellent character because his appearance intercepted both world; the chaotic natural, and the too-perfect world of sanitized order and control that Robotnik desired. He was chaos, he was natural, but he looked like he might even fit in in that strange metal city.

[Uncle Ben]

Thank you someone finally agrees with me

[Skylar]

... ...

Cool, so we're not going down the Archie path.

(throws some papers out of the window)

I won't be needing those any more, I guess...

[Uncle Ben]

Thats why Archie hasnt been doing well, they have way to many characters to deal with and Flynn is making it worse by bringing back old characters along with newer ones. A small cast is exactly what Sea3on needs

[Vlad Yvhv]

Thank you someone finally agrees with me

Hey... I've been agreeing with you all this time...

[RedAuthar]

Thats why Archie hasnt been doing well, they have way to many characters to deal with and Flynn is making it worse by bringing back old characters along with newer ones. A small cast is exactly what Sea3on needs

Yes and no.

See in comic books or cartoons, adding characters expands the world. The amount of characters actually proves that their world has been well developed for a long period of time. If having a large cast of characters is a bad thing, how come Comics such as X-Men, Avengers, and Justice League do so well?

What SEGA does wrong is they keep adding characters who (as shown in Sonic Generations) basically are quickly reduced to Sonic's cheering squad. Archie also has only two running books to work with characters. Back when they did Sonic and Knuckles as separate series the characters were more organized. Now they just appear at whim.

It's not the amount of characters but the organization of them. And the fact that many get reduced to be being Sonic's Cheering squad.

[Skylar]

And the fact that instead of showing up, doing what they have to, and leaving, if they're a "One night stand" character, Archie just keeps them there for some strange inexistant, incoheisive reason.

[Captain Sorzo]

The broader one extends the width of a fictional universe, the more difficult it is to extend its depth. Archie may have a large cast of characters, but very few of them are terribly complex or all that interesting. Those Wolf twins that joined the Secret Freedom Fighters, for example, have no personality at all. More significantly, even many major characters like the trio of morons comprising "Team Fighters" are incredibly bland in part because everything is stretched so thinly. There's so much going on that the comic rarely gets a chance to slow down and focus on characterization.

Focus has to go somewhere, and its benefits will always come at a cost. In SatAM, for example, the bulk of character development amongst the Freedom Fighters was spent on Sonic and Sally, and it shows. Those two became fantastic characters as a result, but Bunnie, Antoine, and especially Rotor were left without much characterization in comparison. They're likable, mind you, and still managed to have a solid foundation for fan expansion through stories like "Me and My Shadow", but there's no question that they were secondary to the two protagonists.

Increasing cast size thus just results in attention being diluted away from the core characters of the story, and should be done sparingly. Properly executing a vast universe with hundreds and hundreds of major, developed characters requires an enormous amount of writing that most series simply cannot produce. Something on the order of the Star Wars Expanded Universe can get away with it, but a two book comic series written by one author at a time can't, and a fan-made web series that only puts out a comic page every week and/or an episode every year certainly can't.

And that's fine. Heck, it's a good thing. SatAM was always relatively small in scope to begin with, at least as far as cast size. Frankly, I'll take a tiny cast of extremely complex, compelling characters over a huge cast of moderately developed ones any day.

[Janus]

The broader one extends the width of a fictional universe, the more difficult it is to extend its depth. Archie may have a large cast of characters, but very few of them are terribly complex or all that interesting. Those Wolf twins that joined the Secret Freedom Fighters, for example, have no personality at all. More significantly, even many major characters like the trio of morons comprising "Team Fighters" are incredibly bland in part because everything is stretched so thinly. There's so much going on that the comic rarely gets a chance to slow down and focus on characterization.

Focus has to go somewhere, and its benefits will always come at a cost. In SatAM, for example, the bulk of character development amongst the Freedom Fighters was spent on Sonic and Sally, and it shows. Those two became fantastic characters as a result, but Bunnie, Antoine, and especially Rotor were left without much characterization in comparison. They're likable, mind you, and still managed to have a solid foundation for fan expansion through stories like "Me and My Shadow", but there's no question that they were secondary to the two protagonists.

Increasing cast size thus just results in attention being diluted away from the core characters of the story, and should be done sparingly. Properly executing a vast universe with hundreds and hundreds of major, developed characters requires an enormous amount of writing that most series simply cannot produce. Something on the order of the Star Wars Expanded Universe can get away with it, but a two book comic series written by one author at a time can't, and a fan-made web series that only puts out a comic page every week and/or an episode every year certainly can't.

And that's fine. Heck, it's a good thing. SatAM was always relatively small in scope to begin with, at least as far as cast size. Frankly, I'll take a tiny cast of extremely complex, compelling characters over a huge cast of moderately developed ones any day.

As would I. I'd prefer a smaller cast with greater characterization of their personalities. Character development is important. Otherwise, you have a bunch of cast members who are merely there that you never learn anything about.

[RedAuthar]

While it is true character development is important, focusing solely on character development will also ruin the series. Just saying.

[ThePuzzledBoy]

A continuation on my previous suggestion with Shadow: I can actually imagine him in the clothes of the tenth incarnation of Doctor Who in a way. I actually wanna see it. Can anyone do a fan art with this and send it to me? There's an "email me" button on my about.me page.

[Uncle Ben]

Shadow doesnt have a place in SatAM in my book. Like how would he have be put in and what was his purpose?

[RedAuthar]

Shadow doesnt have a place in SatAM in my book. Like how would he have be put in and what was his purpose?

Easy. Shadow actually fits the darker themes of SatAM. He can either be a mobian who was genetically experimented on 50 years ago, or he could be a clone of Sonic created by Doctor Robotnik. Another possibility is he could be just another fast hedgehog fighting Robotnik, except he's more viscous and more out for vengeance then restoring Mobius. Like what Sonic could be if he crossed the line.