It was my intention to showcase images for everything. Unfortunately photobucket keeps freezing on me. I've taken just a little bit of time every other day to compose this. Please note however that any images that will be used to illustrate my points will be in spoiler tags to reduce the size of the post. So please do not ask me where certain pictures are if you hadn't yet checked. Thanks!
The sample has been put together to address the following questions:
*How did Sonic and Sally's relationship work
and more importantly:
* how did this relationship affect the team?
Issues used: 19-50
Multiple variables were considered:
Was Sally absent when a Freedom Fighter decided to put Sonic in line? If not, how frequent was this, and why? This was done because the allegation is that the FFs don't help with Sonic's flaws when Sally is there because she pretty much confronts Sonic about his flaws regardless of what they are.
First Criteria: Sonic and Sally solo (This details the interaction between Sonic and Sally but because the other characters aren't present when a flaw manifests it is inadequate in determining how SonSal impacts the team)
Now let us begin, starting with issue 19.
19- In night of 1,000 Sonic's the Sonics start fighting each other and Sally stops them from in their attempt to point the finger at one another.
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20- Sonic is reckless and is affected by the anti matter machine. Sally providing a sense of reason to Sonic's behavior but Sonic is already off by the time she tries.
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31- Geoffery and Sonic are constantly fighting, with Sonic's ego taking a few bruises. Sally has to keep them in line 2 times
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2nd Criteria:flaws manifested demonstrated with multiple team members present and Sally responds:
This essentially outlines how the SonSal relationship affected the team.
22- Sally reminds Sonic to stop basking in his arrogance and to focus on the mission
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Sally also got Sonic back under control when Robotnik tried crippling his ego in the exact same issue.
25- Sally tells Sonic not to rush into unknown danger, Sonic comprimises with Sally's rationale and decides to gather information about the zone first by making Tails scout using his flying abilities. But then when he couldn't wait for Tails any longer (he got captured btw) Sonic went to help save the day.
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26-pt.2 Sally warned Sonic not to go exploring on the hilltop and also told Sonic to stop joking at an inappropriate time.
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28- Sonic's for the most part not himself but when he comes back to his senses he wants to confront Sonic solo and Sally reasons him out of it.
38 -Sally warns Sonic not to go off without a check up, and Sonic ends up having to listen anyway when he learns the hard way he lost his speed... twice
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Sonic gets angry at Rotor and Sally breaks it up
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40- Sally notices how Sonic's sarcasm are upsetting Amy and tells him to save his outbursts.
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40 - Bunnie can't make Sonic calm down and so Sally does it
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41-Sonic and Geoffery fight after Geoffery insults Sonic to impress Sally (twice), and Sally has to break up the fights both times
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46- Sonic, Geoffery and Antione fight over the subject of loyalty and Sally has to break up the fight multiple times
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Solo adventures (this means that Sonic was alone when the flaw manifested, or no one was really part of the adventure to begin with . the point to keep in mind is that how the others respond to his flaws isn't made clear by the issue because even if a flaw did manifest the FFs are not there).
33- Sonic goes alone to fight a bunch of germs plauging the other FFs. This story regardless of direction does not help in characterizing what the SonSal dynamic is about or how it translates to the team.
35- Sonic undergoes solo story involving the Ancient walkers and the attainment of his 1 billionth ring. This story regardless of direction does not help in characterizing what the SonSal dynamic is about or how it translates to the team.
36- (part 1) Sonic goes Solo to Robotropolis and recklessly destroys a device causing jepordizing the fate of planet Mobius
Criteria 3: team members present- flaws didn't manifest or Sally incapcitated/absent: (No scans will be provided unless it's to show that effort was made when Sally was incapacitated. When presented the burden of proof, asking someone to prove that something doesn't exist is a fallacy)
21- EVE story arc- Sally is not present
23 - Sally reprimands Sonic because she thinks he's dancing while they should be gathering food while Tails admires his dancing (he was actually not dancing as it is revealed but it demonstrates how Sally would've responded if he were)
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24- The Anti FFs first squaring off
26-pt 1.Sonic wants to go fighting Robotnik in dangerously low temperatures on the surface of Mobius and Sally challenges his idea. Granted I didn't perceive this as Sonic being flawed since from what information they had at the time, they would've died anyway and they wouldnt have even tried fighting their fate.
27- Sonic wasn't even himself this issue
29
30- Sonic did joke around and Uncle Chuck did say things to him about there being no time to. BUT I don't regard it to be a flaw because none of the FFs knew what Snively was up to (and if you have time to start a cookout, it does nothing to inform anybody)
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32- Uncle Chuck tells Sonic not to go after Muttski, but Uncle Chuck is also the only one who knew he called off the bots. No one even knew Chuck was present and with the information they had, Sonic's reasoning to go after him was rational.
34- flaws didn't really manifest. You can argue Sonic and Chuck were reckless in not informing the other FFs about their plan. Sally did reprimand them for this though.
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36 part 2- Sonic loses his cool when Sally's conked out. While Tails and Antione try to restrain Sonic, this doesn't infer that they would do this if Sally were not incapacitated.
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42- Tails breaks up Sonic and Knuckles' fighting but Sally isn't there.
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43
*Sally misinterpreted Sonic's offensiveness as a genuine sign of illness
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* As for insulting Quack Sally was already commenting on how ridiculous his crack on Quack's credentials were. Yes Quack did respond to Sonic but not in a way that was active in stopping his behavior until the second time.
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Well for one thing Quack only interjected when St. John tried provoking Sonic again right after Sally aimed to reason settle Sonic down....Some could however consider Sonic's outbursts somewhat OOC (beyond the whole Geoff v.s Sonic thing). He doesn't seem to mind taking regular leaps of faith with poorly constructed plans and without any background on the situation. He's also accepted medical diagnoses before (in issue 38 for example), and has been involved with medicine on more then one ocassion but now he is sceptical of a character whose been Sally's medical support since...her birth? AND has more
medical practice than Rotor? I personally saw it as more of the comic trying to find a way to bring out Sonic's attitude that issue.
44 Anti Sonic/Anti Knuckles
47,48,49,50 -Sally's liek, "dead".
Next Criteria: Flaws manifest and other characters besides Sally deal with it while she's present
37 - Uncle Chuck brought Sonic down to Earth. However Sally regularly tells Sonic to get back on task and being how serious she was about the idea Uncle Chuck wanted to see them, there's no reason as to why she didn't put Sonic in his place for as she usually did.
32- Rotor tells everyone to put themselves in Mobie's position.
39- Council formed by Sally, where everyone gives a democratic answer. Pretty similar to issue 40 in the sense Sally demands input from others on Sonic's idea. Then again Sonic may've had a bad idea, but he had enough restraint to get the input of the FFs and did not challenge the unanimous decision.
40- Bunnie was given the responsibility to keep Sonic in line and attempts to do so (she fails btw because she's too angry at him herself).
45 -Rotor tells Sonic not to run so fast in the jungle as it could cause a jungle fire.
Conclusion:
*Did the other characters try to keep Sonic in check? Possibly but only when Sally:
a. Tells them to do it
b. Cannot do this herself (absent, incapacitated) in many cases a and b are related
c. Did not know enough about her surroundings to know that there was a sizeable risk in Sonic's actions. (rare)
d. 3 other instances don't fit in this. However these instances are miniscule in comparison to the plethora of instances that do not
show Sally taking any action to face off Sonic's recklessness. One can argue this instance was simply to give the characters in question spotlight since it was a Rotor/Sonic issue, while not highlighting anything specific about Rotor. In the case with Uncle Chuck, there's nothing to suggest after a history of similar instances that Sally wouldn't have reprimanded Sonic.
*The ammount of times Sally confronted Sonic's flaws is far greater than that of any FF doing it while under no orders to Sally, and in her presence.
From what the material shows, once SonSal received it's footing, the other characters pretty much relinquished this responsibility to Sally. They may have taken it upon themselves when Sally couldn't but when things went back to normal it was bussiness as usual.
*Sonic did not always listen to Sally when she confronted his flaws
So when you argue 'balance', you need to be very specific on what that means, I think. Sally is portrayed as Sonic's opposite, providing reasoning to his poorly thought out decisions/ideas, responding to his overconfidence, calming him down when his ego was bruised, etc. Her helping Sonic out wasn't to any specific flaw and the FFs didn't really step in unless she was absent. I felt that showed that Sally as the foil to his character acts as a "catch-all" for any flaws associated to Sonic's character. She did not appear limited in context beyond her physical absence. Does she always acheive her desired result? No. But from how the logic of the story went if anyone is going to confront Sonic's flaws, it'd be Sally whose the foil. The premise behind SonSal that strikes a chord to me is that it's not as simple as grabbing the manifestation of the flaws its how. The most essential premises for it are balance which requires these two characters to be foils. So naturally because they're to be foils for one another they will balance each other's flaws as well as possible (keeping in mind the logic of the world) regardless of what they are.
Most instances where Sonic was regulated by another person weren't very often and required a bend in the regular logic of the story (i.e plotholes). Also, these regulations were not the norm in terms of frequency. Nor did such contributions demonstrate that WHO the characters were played any role in Sonic's life. They were only to help if Sally could not and the plot made sure to keep this at a minimum so that Sally's place as the foil was easily recongnizeable and not cheapened. I don't think anyone's been arguing that this is about simply making an FF confront Sonic's flaws as a character. It's about demonstrating who they are as an individual has a place to Sonic and HIS story. Making them simply call Sonic out doesn't reflect how their personality in particular is special, and being Sally's obviously the foil character they will cheapen her and she will cheapen them even if you did make her step aside. I think that's why being a foil for a specific attribute was talked about. But being Sally's pretty much Sonic's foil in personlity, there really isn't going to be such a thing unless Sonic+Sally is gotten rid of.
