Maren

M30YL is more like a 'what if' future than it is a possibility. There's already a lot of stuff in present continuity that would detract its ability to be plausible at this point (ex: The fact Locke's already dead in the present and not years from now).

Part of me thinks Ian won't have the stones to keep her dead, while the other part is telling me this expectation of her return through Genesis is exactly what he wants fans to believe.

- To completely replace the continuity with Genesis would infer many characters and their histories would get erased; Something I don't think Ian would get away with even for Sally. The fact he infers we'll be 'returning' to the present continuity after Genesis implies it won't be a complete reboot, provided Genesis impacts the main book at all.

- Provided Genesis ties in with the main story, the current continuity doesn't get completely replaced and will still hold merit, the events covering Genesis have to be connected. Otherwise, it would just result in a time paradox. Eggman had to create the Death Egg and capture the Chaos Emerald in order to introduce the story, and by extention Sonic Genesis. Unless Sonic has concious recollection of his past, there's nothing he can do to predict or prevent Eggman's actions and even after Genesis, its implied a life will still be compromised.

On the other hand Ian's notorious for writing plotholes so he just might ignore this and bring her back anyway.

Personally with all that's happened to Sally and how much she dragged down Sonic and the series after awhile, I hope she stays dead. I'd rather that as opposed to her being Ian's plot-contorting little Mary-Sue. A part of me though thinks he's too attached to her to let that happen and will magically revive her somehow through Genesis.

But I think it'd be for the best. I mean, besides being Sonic's girlfriend, she doesn't really have much story potential to keep her going anymore. You tell me, with all that's happened, what's Ian gonna do with her now, make more time-wasting love triangles or have her point her finger and scream some battlecry under the pretense she's leading? Her being the leader isn't really enough to offer much in story potential. She lacks internal issues now to develop with, so she felt sort of ... bland before she died.

Guys, let's try to stay on topic. The title specifically says 'Archie!Sally'. If you want to debate about her SatAM counterpart, feel free to make your own. On the subject of Sally being the tactician, I'm not sure I really liked that being her only signature skill, because it often came at the expense of other characters. Part of getting to know the characters is understanding how they think; how they strategize against one another, make decisions and think for themselves. My problem with Sally in pretty much every universe she's been in but most especially Archie, is that its a skill people expect only her to have under this pretense of her being useful, when it ultimately comes to the disadvantage of all the characters on the team. The ideal of Sally being the only brains doesn't help us expand on characters like Bunnie, Sonic, Amy, Tails, etc. and how their characterized to act like in a fight, which is something that bothers me as this is supposed to be an action genre. I will admit though, its not entirely Sally's fault. Ian has this habit of making man-fight splash panels without attempting to expand on what's going on in-depth so he can quickly get the scene over with. It doesn't change though, that I think this whole flandarized ideal of Sally being relegated to the role of the team's 'brain' instead has a lot of flaws to it. Sally having input and summarizing a plan is one thing. Making her designate every character's move just takes away from action complementing their personality.

Mmm ... I kind of have to agree with the folks at the SEGA boards atm. Whether or not Suedom was her initial intention doesn't matter, its the fact that what she is NOW feels like one, and it would seem through Ian's writing she's headed if not already in Black Hole Sue and Relationship Sue territory (See TVTropes). Sally's essentially designed to be this 'perfect' girl (and probably by extention perfect mate for Sonic) in this story. Again, I don't think it matters if you think thats how she actually is in execution or not, but that's its essentially what Ian's aiming to write her as. I mean shoot, he's even admitted that in one of his blogs. The plot bends itself unrealistically, derailing and making numerous characters OOC (including to some extent Sally herself) to serve as her plot enablers, the stories always seem to be directly/indirectly involved with advancing her relationship with Sonic somehow (ex: the return of Rosemary and Amadeus Prower to make the council and dilute her responsibilities as princess) and all the interesting parts of her heritage got stripped away just so she could be Sonic's girlfriend. Aside from her pretentiously pointless job as leader and being his love interest, there's .. not so much to her character anymore, which is kind of sad because it makes her feel redundant. She feels instead like a pretentiously written version of Amy Rose, the only difference being she doesn't chase -- well. At least not as directly.

I might use an RPG forum if there were standard rules that kept it from being too n00bish, if you know what I mean. Otherwise, its no fun if you can't conceptualize your characters as part of the actual story and tone for SatAM, thus sort of defeating the purpose. I guess I could play if I wanted to -- maybe as Sonic, Sally or Bunnie OCs aside, but it all depends on how the story gets played out.