Janus

 Killing/hurting/breaking/roboticizing/mentally-scaring someone has to be done down the road if you want your villans to not decay into empty AoSTHesque comic foils which thereby zaps away the conflict. Villans need victories over the heros (Joker kills Jason Todd, Joker paralyzes Batgirl, Spock comes back but then Commander Kruge kills Kirk's only son) . The great thing about Satam is that Robotnik has all but won, so you gotta go through a lot of trouble to make him suck as a writer. This was a great idea on the part of the writers, because it kept him well perserved as a menacing villan. You might have saved the day and made it one step closer to victory but he still rules all civilization in a steel-fisted grip - oh great, and now he's got Kat.

 

At the end of the day a price has to be paid to win, and sometimes the profit -margine for victory is written in crimson ink.

I usually like it when the villain wins every now and then because it adds interesting drama.  And I would agree that if deaths occur in a work, there should be some meaning and impact to it.  I've never liked it when a bunch of characters die all at once because the characters (and the audience) don't have much time to react to each one.

"Where were you when the brains were handed out?" is one of my favorites.

Not to open a new can of worms, and I do agree the slap was stupid, I disagree it was out of character.
We tend to forget, most of the Sonic Characters are only 16 years old and do stupid teenager things specifically when they are at the moment emotionally unstable.
At the time Sally was still emotionally depressed due to Sonic's supposed death a year ago (evidence is that she is still crying at the grave) which is understandable as it is something most people never get over. On top of that Sonic just turned out to be alive which would more then likely completely switch from depression to joy. She then witnesses him nearly die in the last mission which also causes her to break down into tears. After that the weight of the entire Kingdom is put on her shoulders once again as her Parents are leaving putting her in-charge. With the constant emotional traffic and the pressure of leading the Freedom Fighters and the Kingdom I would not put it passed a 16 year old to have an emotional breakdown when their lover basically turns them down in public. Hence the slap.

I see where it was coming from too. We're used to seeing Sally at her strongest, being a leader, overcoming her trials, and putting on a happy face even when her life is being turned upside down. Bollers wanted to show what she's like when she isn't at her best, isn't able to be strong, and isn't able to hide her pain from everyone else.

The only problem is the actual slap itself. If it wasn't over the whole issue of Sonic giving up being a hero in a time where Sonic was desperately needed just so she wouldn't have to worry about him anymore is rather selfish. And while Sally does have the right to be selfish, that level of selfishness was way out of character.

So to make a long story short it was a good idea, but it was played out wrong. Ideally it would have been better if instead of it over Sonic giving up being a hero it would be Sonic (being a young teenager himself) unready to go further with their relationship.

I agree. However, I still dislike that it happened, which it seems all of us agree on. What made it worse was Jon Gray's art in my opinion. I don't want to criticize him, but he made the scene look even more childish than it already was. If another artist had handled the duties, it could have been much better. Personally, I just wish that issue had never existed.

I've never read Sonic Live. And from all the hate I've heard from it, I don't really want to. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the crossover happen in an alternate reality or the main series? A previous post I read seemed like it was an alternate reality. Unless I'm remembering this incorrectly.

I like the old cast too. And while some of them have been written out, I still don't get how they are going to handle the plot with Naugus and Geoffrey. Unless some deux ex machina fixes that whole mess. And it would be ridiculous.

I have a question on the subject and I thought someone might be able to answer me. What were the circumstances of Penders' split from Archie? Was he forced out or did he quit and was it on amiable or bad terms?
I'm afraid that, until recently that is, I've been out of the loop concerning the comic. Prior to the last six months the last time I read one it was rather silly and Sally was still pink, which turned me off to it and was a reason I didn't follow the comic.

Personally, I'm on the fence if I'll subscribe or not to the comic. It really hangs on what Flynn and company do to the Freedom Fighters. There are a few of Penders' characters that I'll miss, but even without them I can easily see Flynn writing around their absence.

I never did figure out what happened with Archie and Penders. I just remember looking at my old issues and seeing that around Issue 160 or so, he was no longer a writer. I had no idea about the lawsuit until about a year or so ago when I found out online.

Personally, I hate Jack the Rabbit. I hate him even before I read his debut issue. He's selfish, xenophobic, self-centered, psychotic, and arrogant. He's the reason why the Badlands chapter exists. I get the fact the he's suppose to be the character that you're suppose to hate like Geoffrey, but good grief, the writers (Both Karl Bollers and Ian Flynn) made him so hateful that I can't stand him. It's a shame that the main Sand Blasters aren't that bad. Their designs are nice to look at and have decent personality. It's a shame that they have to follow this scoop of mud. I hope he dies either nobly or not, or written out of the comics.

One can only hope that Jack will either be gone or have a massive change in character. I can't see the latter happening though.

I hope they return somehow. The Echidnas are really important characters. I just can't see the comic not having their entire society in it. Or, I can, but it would be a more dismal world.