The end of the they/them 3-parter (Issue 83) is here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZsMlx1LE_w
Pomni?
If you're wondering how they transition from this to timeskipping to post-Frontiers, the answer is: they aren't! It's going to be retcon-assumed to have happened earlier.
and after this it’s the Belle arc
>>151848991Still better than how Archie did SA2.
>>151848991Reminder that Evan Stanley admitted that she makes up details about Lunar on the fly and only when circumstances force her to come up with an answer rather than planning ahead with this arc, implying that writing by the seat of her pants is her de-facto style (which would explain a lot regarding Clutch/Clean Sweep being such a meandering mess):https://spiritsonic.tumblr.com/post/793713230136705024/please-tell-me-lunar-isnt-both-sonics-firstReminder that even after fucking up the Clean Sweepstakes, Mimic and Whisper, Surge, and Lanolin, she's still pushing back against IDW Editorial and Barnes trying to force her to do short-form stories, and indirectly attempted to blame Sega for it ala Ian's mandate-whining until Daniel Barnes (the Scrapnik Island/Chaotix Anniversary guy) spoke against her.https://spiritsonic.tumblr.com/post/801755249116430336/idw-sonic-spoilers-for-issue-82-idw-sonic-issue
>>151848963what was even the point of this character other than being some godawful tumblr self-insert>>151849107i've always been pretty indifferent towards evan's writing, but i never thought it'd get to the point where i'd actually want ian back in charge. she has no fucking idea what she's doing.
>>151849184Neither of them are better than the other. It's both stripes of shit:Ian:>Puts on airs about being a master of Sonic lore; knowledge is actually mostly broad strokes skimmed off wikis and youtube, so he makes amateur errors (as seen with his Encyclo-Speed-ia and Mario Wiki plagiarism incidents)>Obstinate "my way or the highway" behavior; if he isn't allowed to write exactly how he wants, he writes in the most malicious compliance manner possible (Shadow during the Zombot arc for example; he wanted him to take off his inhibitors and still lose, Sega told him taking the inhibitors off is meant to be a winning move, so he makes him a stubborn idiot to force the same result)>Never got over Archie being canned, vents by "deconstructing" an OOC Game Sonic>Likes to make characters hamfistedly quote songs verbatim - often to mask poor character writing>Overexplains shit he doesn't need to, hates ambiguity or mystery (WITHOUT THE TIME STONES?!)>Makes characters speechify at length about their thoughts, philosophies, etc>Mistakes drama for depthEvan:>Stereotypical Tumblrina; regularly introduces characters as an expression of her daddy issues (and the closest she could get to a canon nonbinary)>Makes characters stand around talking about their feelings a lot>Mistakes drama for depth like Ian; character cry at the drop of a hat pitying themselves>Admits to making shit up on the fly, filling in blanks only when they become relevant, writing entirely off vibes>Thirsts for long arcs; cannot build them up nor provide payoff (ruining several characters along the way) and fights with editorial forcing her to do self-contained>Contributes to the book's "no regular villains outside Eggman" problem by redeeming anyone who shows even the slightest sympathetic aspect (including Surge, the only decent antagonist it had left)>Just doesn't comprehend this is an action comic first and foremost, probably due to being a woman
>>151849284>Contributes to the book's "no regular villains outside Eggman" problem by redeeming anyone who shows even the slightest sympathetic aspect (including Surge, the only decent antagonist it had left)In hindsight, giving Rough and Tumble of all characters the feel-good Steven Universe retirement was probably a bad sign.
>>151848991Honestly after looking over the issues, I guess right before the Riders arc could probably be one of the better places to sandwich in Frontiers. Only weird detail is it semi-conflicting with Amy, Knuckles and Tails' motivations at the end of Frontiers. All in all with how things were going I didn't think there was a way for them to include Frontiers without it looking sloppy in terms of the ongoing plots but I guess they picked a logical place to put it in regards to the comic.
>>151849644This is one of the worst places to put it though>ongoing plot how mystery coffin guy collects all the emeralds>oops they just slipped out of his hands and went to the starfall islands and i guess he just collected them all over again offscreenBesides Amy Tails and Knuckles didn’t have actual motives or plots at the end of Frontiers. It was just an empty excuse for Sonic to sniff his own farts and lecture them so the audience can see how “wise” and “inspirational” he is to the shitty useless cheerleaders.I’m sure in SEGA’s eyes Final Horizon is their “arcs”, where they fetch Sonic’s emeralds, do nothing but speak about how le heckin great Sonic is when he’s not onscreen, then job so Sonic can do everythinfg and hog all the spotlight
>>151849696>This is one of the worst places to put it thoughBut I didn't say that after 83 was the best, I said after 67 like Evan stated was a better place. Did you miss that in my post?
>>151849644>>151849696For the record regarding base Frontiers, the bizarre scriptwriting system they put in place ever since Sonic Forces means that despite the initial script coming from the west being created first (and animations taking those into account), the Japanese version where Sonic Team rewrites it is considered the "finalized" version that they use to direct canon.For all intents and purposes, they use the west as guinea pigs with a beta script that gives distorted expectations on where they're actually going with this. This consequently also makes Ian look like he has more influence than he actually does.
>>151849707>For the record regarding base Frontiers, the bizarre scriptwriting system they put in place ever since Sonic Forces means that despite the initial script coming from the west being created first (and animations taking those into account), the Japanese version where Sonic Team rewrites it is considered the "finalized" version that they use to direct canon.
>>151848963Op for fuck sake just wait for the issue to be posted on the Grabber zone net and then post it no one in here in /co/ want to watch a video.
>>151849707I believe you, but that’s why i make the point that i do: since Jap Frontiers is even more blatant that Amy, Tails and Knuckles will get NOTHING, and it was all just a cheap excuse to wank off Sonic as furry Jesus.Hell i remember Sage even saying it outright after Sonic’s speech to Tails. “Sugoi, Sonic Sama is so wise and incredible that he inspires even that pathetic weakling!”Those Samurai really do have no subtlety
>>151849810Also that shit about Amy leaving on her own to “spread the love of the cosmos” or whatever was entirely West specific, not even mentioned in Jap.They also got rid of the mention that Tails can fight or is fast. Now Sonic just says “you’re not completely useless, cause uh, you can make gadgets.” Also P sure they say in Final Horizon that he can’t fight physically like Sonic/Knuckles, while they’re fetching sonic’s emeralds. i’ll have to double check that one
>>151849834Knuckles’ one wasn’t west specific, just a general “yeah i guess i’ll find out more about muh ancestors”. And without the weird General/Military larp he was doing with the Kocos
So is there a source that confirms that the JP Script is the canon script or is this just people being turbo weebs? Because if anything all of the additional media leans towards the English side being canon.
>>151849891there's nothing outright saying that, no. People just tend to trust them more because they're the game makers
>>151848991I assumed that's how it was going to work. What, were people expecting half an issue of "HELLO READER, THIS VIDEO GAME JUST HAPPENED" or something?
>>151849720https://www.thegamer.com/sonic-frontiers-writing-japan-asia-regional-changes/https://youtu.be/5wPQsWzrSsI?t=497I'm not a Sega employee, so take me with a grain of salt, but this is corroborated by credits, that leak of Forces' beta shit, and comments from Graff and Pontac - the prior ENG. This is the timeline as I know it:>Sonic Colors (Wii)Sonic Team comes up with premise and first script. Pontaff joins them late development. ST wants to remove Orbot & Cubot as they think they make Eggman OOC. Pontaff insists on keeping them and make changes to the script. ENG & JP end up with major differences.>Sonic Lost WorldST comes up with premise. Pontaff are given ideas to write a story and script around, and do so. Script is supervised and later adapted for the Japanese version.>Sonic ForcesMakoto Goya & Eitaro Toyoda write the script. Pontaff does localization. Several versions of the scripts are translated back and forth so both ENG & JP teams can contribute. Various other people comment on the different scripts (like Aaron Webber, the Sonic twitter guy).>Sonic FrontiersSomeone at ST, likely Jyunpei Ootsu and/or Kishimoto, comes up with the premise. Ian convinces ST to make the Ancients ancestors of the Chao. Ian writes the script for the main scenes, then animated following Ian's script. Kishimoto is unsatisfied with the main script and makes several changes for the JP version. Ian also writes side dialogue like idle commentary and Egg Memos, which are MTL translated to JP without thought.>Sonic Frontiers: The Final HorizonUnknown devs at ST come up with the story. Ian writes the script for the few main dialogue scenes - plainly translated to JP without major changes. Unknown devs write the side dialogue, which makes the majority of dialogue, and is presumably plainly translated to ENG without thought.
>>151850036Why do they ping-pong this shit?
>>151850103NTA but Sega has always been this ass backwards about Sonic. SoJ wants to be in charge of this blatantly American property, but they clearly don't have the reach that NoA has regarding it.
>>151850103>>151850169It's not like American Sonic employees are any less uncoordinated.
So, after finishing this arc, who do you guys think is the worst OC? Soleil or Belle?
>>151850304Belle is better by design (more could have been done with her) but worse in executionSoleil's just a gay nothingburger, written like a gay nothingburger
>>151849810>all just a cheap excuse to wank off Sonic as furry Jesus.That's been the case since Sonic 3.
>>151850807
>>151850304Soleil easily. Literally everything about this character fucking reeks. I’d take Tommy Turtle over xem.
>>151850304I saw the storytime where Sonic confronts the amnesiacI genuinely don't know how anyone has the patience to read IDW
